



'gjfr 



NOTES 



BUCOLICS AND GEORGICS 



VIRGIL; 



WITH EXCURSUS, TERMS OF HUSBANDRY, 
AND A FLORA VIRGILIANA, 



THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, 

AUTHOR OF THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT GREECE AND ITALY, ETC, 



*< 

^/-■N. 



LONDON: 

WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE MARIA LANE. 

1S46. 






PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, 
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 



PREFACE, 



I HAVE written this commentary on the rural poetry 
of Virgil, "because., however inferior in other respects, I 
conceive myself to possess two important advantages 
over the preceding commentators on these poems : I 
have resided in Italy, where none of them appear ever 
to have been, and thence am tolerably familiar with the 
physical features and other properties of that country ; 
and further, having spent the first twenty years of my 
life almost entirely in the country, where I witnessed all 
the operations of agriculture as then practised, and be- 
ing similarly situated at present, I may claim a practi- 
cal acquaintance with the various branches of rural eco- 
nomy and husbandry. They, on the contrary, have 
passed their days in schools and universities, and appear 
to have seen no agriculture, and hardly to know one im- 
plement from another. 

Some may think I should except Martyn ; but I do 
not. He knew botany, as it was then known, and nothing 
more : he was ignorant of agriculture and of natural 
history. I will however except Mr= Hoblyn, who pub- 
lished in 1825 a translation of the first book of the 
Georgics, with notes, in which he exhibited a practical 
acquaintance with agriculture and a competent know- 
ledge of natural history. 

a2 



IV PREFACE. 

Beside the commentators, I have made use of The 
Husbandry of the Ancients of the Rev. Adam Dickson, 
a minister of the Church of Scotland, who certainly un- 
derstood Pliny and the Scriptores Rei Rusticae better 
than any writer I have met with, and to whom conse- 
quently I am under much obligation. I have also had 
the Saggio di Nuove Illustrazioni filologico-rustiche 
sulle Egloghe e Georgiche di Virgilio, of Carlo Fea, the 
celebrated Roman antiquary and topographer, and some 
modern Italian works on agriculture. 

Though not a professed botanist, yet not totally a 
stranger in that region, I have ventured to add a Flora ; 
for I think it is a real advantage to the reader of Vir- 
gil to be enabled to form a definite idea of the plants 
which the poet mentions. My authorities here have 
been, beside Martyn, the Flore de Virgile, Flore de 
Theocrite, and Commentaires sur la Botanique et la 
Matiere Medicale de Pline of Dr. A. L. A. Fee, the 
professor of botany at Strasbourg, from whom, on my 
passage through that city, I received both attention 
and information. The Cav. M. Tenore, director of the 
Botanic Garden at Naples, though not personally ac- 
quainted with me, very kindly presented me, through a 
common friend, with his Osservazioni on the two Floras 
of Dr. Fee. I may therefore hope that my Flora will 
be found tolerably correct. 

I have added what I denominate Terms of Hus- 
bandry, because it was necessary to describe the im- 
plements and operations of husbandry at some length, 
and I did not wish to make the notes disproportionate. 
With respect to the implements, little information can 



PREFACE. 



be derived from dictionaries, except the excellent one 
of Forcellini, as the compilers of them knew nothing of 
such matters. 

In the Excursus I have tried to develope two or three 
rather remarkable peculiarities of the Latin language, 
which did not appear to have been sufficiently noticed 
by grammarians. The Biographical Notices prefixed to 
the Notes seemed to me to be requisite for the perfect 
understanding of the Bucolics : it will be seen at once 
that they are only intended to be sketches, not com- 
plete biographies. It was my intention to have prefixed 
also Views of Bucolic and Didactic Poetry ; but I after- 
wards thought that it would be only increasing the size 
of the book needlessly, as few of its readers would pro- 
bably much care about the political bucolics of Petrarca 
and Boccaccio, for instance, or the pastoral drama and 
romance of Italy and Spain. The View of Bucolic Poetry 
has been referred to in the Observations on the fifth, 
eclogue, as I had not altered my plan when that part of 
the work was printed. 

The Notes are written in English, as it is only in a 
modern language that the Georgics could be fully ex- 
plained. There is no text, for every one may be sup- 
posed to possess a Virgil, and I have always found it 
more convenient to have the text in one and the com- 
mentary in another, than one at the beginning and the 
other at the end of the same volume, or the text and 
notes bearing the same proportion and relation to one 
another as the cornice and wall in architecture. 

In illustrating the meaning of particular words and 
phrases, the plan which I have adopted is, to quote the 



VI PREFACE. 

elder poets and the contemporaries of Virgil, and but 
rarely his successors. For the works of Virgil were so 
universally read and learned by heart, that it is always 
likely that Ovid or Statius, for example, only gives us 
a repetition of the Virgilian phrase, and not an inde- 
pendent instance of its employment. 

I could wish that the Bucolics were not read so early 
in schools as they generally are ; for, excepting Horace, 
I know no portion of the Latin poetry read at school so 
difficult to understand. They might be read after the 
Aeneis, and perhaps in conjunction with some Idylls of 
Theocritus. 

In writing a commentary one should endeavour to 
avoid giving too much explanation, and be careful to 
omit nothing requisite. On the last point I believe 
myself to be tolerably secure ; but I greatly fear that, 
not being in the habit of teaching or lecturing, I may 
have erred on the other side. It is however the safe 
side. 

Even in this work I have a moral object. I am not 
without hope that young men, from reading and under- 
standing the rural poetry of Virgil, and learning some- 
thing of the agriculture of the ancients, may have their 
curiosity excited about that of the present day, and thus 
be led to acquire a taste for rural life and husbandry ; 
and that afterwards, as landlords, as private gentlemen, 
or as professional men, they may take a lively interest 
in our British agriculture, and seek to promote the 
welfare and to elevate the character of those engaged 
in it. 

Before concluding, I will justify my mode of spelling 



PREFACE. VU 

a word which I use in this as in all my other writings. 
From the Greek /jlv6os I have made the word my the, in 
which however no one has followed me, the form gene- 
rally adopted being myth. Now if there is anything 
like a general rule in the English language it is this,, 
that words formed from Greek and Latin dissyllables in 
o? and us, whether the penultimate vowel be long or 
short, are monosyllables made long by a final e. Thus 
/3w\o? makes bole, 73-0X09, pole. I believe that a single 
instance to the contrary, except myth, cannot be ad- 
duced ; for plinth and the like are not such, the vowel 
in them being made short by the two consonants. I 
am not simple enough to expect to alter the usual prac- 
tice, I only want to show that analogy is on my side. 

In conclusion, as my work cannot possibly be ex- 
empt from error, and must be capable of much improve- 
ment, I shall feel really thankful for any communica- 
tions on the subject, and promise to give them all due 
attention. 

T. K. 

Binfield, Berks, Feb. 25, 1846. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 

OF 

VIRGIL, ASINIUS POLLIO, AND CORNELIUS 
GALLUS. 



It is always a matter of regret, when in reading the works of 
men of genius we find ourselves destitute of the means of 
knowing something of their private history, their ordinary 
occupations, their mode of life, and their familiar conversa- 
tion. As a proof of this feeling, we may observe the great 
avidity with which any anecdote of such men is received 
whenever it presents itself from any unexpected quarter. In 
the case of modern writers this is not felt so much ; yet who 
would not fain know more of even Milton? and how much is 
it not to be deplored that we know so little of Dante, Shake- 
speare, Spenser and Cervantes ! But imperfect as our know- 
ledge is of the history of these great men, it is actually copious 
when compared with what we can learn of that of the an- 
cients. Of these, with the exception of Cicero, Horace, and 
Ovid (whom circumstances led to speak of themselves, their 
habits and feelings), we know almost nothing ; for what can 
be more jejune than the notices of them transmitted to us by 
scholiasts and grammarians ! 

Virgil has shared the common fate : nearly all our infor- 
mation respecting him is derived from a Life, purporting to be 
written by Donatus, a grammarian who flourished in the fourth 
century, and which, though it is probably founded on earlier and 
more authentic narratives*, presents in its actual form a farrago 

* Especially the work of Asconius Pedianus, Contra detractores Virgilii, 
In our Notes (pp. 44, 59), we inadvertently followed Servius in terming him 
Virgil's contemporary, for he was not born till some years after the death 
of the poet. 

a 5 



X BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

of puerile fictions, many of them apparently the inventions of 
the marvel-loving monks of the middle ages. Their origin 
can often be easily traced in the history and works of the poet 
himself. Thus he was skilled in magic, because his mother's 
name was Magia ; and he was a clever horse-doctor, and was 
in that capacity, before he exhibited his poetic talents, em- 
ployed in the stables of the emperor Augustus, because he 
treats in the Georgics of the diseases of cattle. 

We will here endeavour to relate all that seems to bear the 
semblance of truth in Donatus' Life of this poet, and add the 
little that is known of the history of his friends Pollio and 
Gallus, as it tends to illustrate the Bucolics. 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. 



Publius Virgilius Maro was born on the Ides (15th) of Oc- 
tober, 682-4<, in the first consulate of Pompeius and Crassus*. 
The place of his birth is said to have been Ancles, a village 
within three miles of Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaulf, where his 
father had a property in land, probably of moderate extent. 
The name of his mother was Maia, or rather Magia, as there 
was a family of this name in the adjacent district of Cremona J 
to which she may have belonged. Among the figments of 
the grammarians we may reckon the following : viz. his father 
was a potter or brickmaker (figidus), — Virgil we know made 
(Jingebat) verses, — or he was a hired servant of one Magius, 
who afterwards gave him his daughter in marriage ; and when 

* Virgilius Maro, in pago qui Andes dicilur, Mud procul a Mantua, 
nascitur, Pompeio et Crasso Coss. Hieronym. in Chron. Euseb. — N.B. Here 
and elsewhere we give the years of Rome according to the Catonian and 
the Varronian sera. 

f It was the established belief even in the time of Dante (Purg. C. xviii. 
st. 28), that Andes was the present Pietola; but this village is only two 
miles from Mantua. 

% Cn. Maqius, Cremona, praefectus faorum Cn. Pompeii. Caes. Bell. 
Civ. i. 24. 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XI 

his father-in-law gave him charge of his cattle and farming 
(i. e. made him his villicus), he increased his little property 
by purchasing woods and by keeping bees, — a fiction to account 
for the origin of the Georgics. They also tell, that his mother 
dreamed that she was delivered of a branch of bay, which grew 
at once to be a tree laden with various fruits and flowers, and 
that early next morning, as she was accompanying her hus- 
band into the country, she was seized with the pains of labour 
on the road, and gave birth to her celebrated son in a ditch, 
who, unlike other newborn babes, never uttered a cry, and 
displayed a countenance of the utmost placidity. 

The early years of the future poet were probably spent in 
the seclusion of his father's villa, where he may have been 
taught the elements of literature by some educated slave, or 
possibly at a school in the village*. In 694-96, when he 
was twelve years old, he was sent for his education to Cremona, 
where, as we have supposed, he may have had maternal rela- 
tives. He probably remained there till he assumed the virile 
toga, which he is said to have done in the second consulate of 
Pompeius and Crassus, 697-99, in his sixteenth year. lie 
then went to Milan, for instruction of a higher order, and 
thence, we are told, to Rome, or, as Donatus says, first to Naples 
and then to Rome. Whether at this early age he visited 
these two capitals or not, is a matter of the utmost uncertainty ; 
in all probability the grammarians sent him thither in order 
to place him on a level with Horace and others. At all events 
it seems plain, from the account of his early years, that his 
father could not have been in mean circumstances, or he could 
not have bestowed such an education on his son. 

Virgil is said to have been taught Greek by Partheniusf, at 
Naples, and to have attended the lectures of Syro, an Epicu- 
rean philosopher, at Rome, where his fellow-pupil was Varus, 
to whom he afterwards inscribed his sixth eclogue. But he 
must surely have been taught Greek long before he could 
have gone to Naples, and he might easily have learned the 
Epicurean system in the writings of Epicurus himself, or rather 

* Comp. Hor. S. i. 6, 72. f See Life of Gallus. 



XIX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

in the poem of Lucretius, which had lately appeared, and 
which exercised such influence on the rising generation of the 
Latin poets. 

It is uncertain how long Virgil may have been from home. 
As his constitution was delicate, it is probable that he early 
sought the tranquil retirement of the paternal villa, and, with- 
out taking much concern in the occupations of the farm, 
devoted himself to literature. The rural poetry of Theocritus 
would seem to have had a peculiar charm for his gentle and 
placid mind, and it is not unlikely that he may have tried to 
imitate, or rather have translated, parts of it. We know that 
at this time he composed a poem named the Culex, of which 
the subject was the death of a gnat, killed by a shepherd whom 
she had stung, to warn him against the approach of a serpent. 
He is also said to have written at this time epigrams, Priapeia, 
Dirae, the Moretum,the Copa, etc. All these poems, and with 
them one named Ciris, have comedown to us; and though some 
of them may be of the Augustan age, and are not unworthy of 
Virgil, we feel confident that none of them are his composition. 
One of the best of these is the Moretum, which, it is said, he 
translated from the Greek of Parthenius ; but its aspect is 
much more Italian than Greek, and it contains a minuteness 
and accuracy of description which is foreign to the genius 
of Virgil. To us it seems to be the work of one who was 
familiar with the poems of Virgil, and even with those of 
Horace. The same is the case with the Copa ; it is not Vir- 
gilian, but it contains Virgilian terms and expressions. The 
Culex which we have is a wretched production, evidently the 
work of some one who sought to replace the real, but lost, 
Culex of Virgil. 

After the Culex Virgil wrote his Bucolics, of which there 
can be no doubt that the first written was that which stands 
the second in order, — the Alexis. Those who infer from Ec. 
v. 52, that Virgil was personally known to the Dictator, place 
it in 707-9 ; those who from Ec. viii. 11, that he wrote his 
Bucolics at the desire of Pollio, in 709-11 or 710-12. The 
first hypothesis is quite inadmissible ; and with respect to the 
second, all that legitimately follows from that passage is, that 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. Xlll 

at the desire of Pollio, our poet took up again the subject of 
unrequited love, and was perhaps required to imitate the Phar- 
maceutria of Theocritus. The real case would seem to be, 
that when in 709-11 Pollio, who was himself a man of 
letters and a poet, was appointed to the government of Cisal- 
pine Gaul, he became acquainted with the Culex, the Alexis, 
and perhaps some other pieces of the young poet of Mantua, 
and gave him his patronage and his friendship. 

The third eclogue was Virgil's next production. This was 
most probably written in 710-12, or 711-13, after he had 
obtained the friendship of Pollio. We should be inclined to 
say in the former year ; for the place in which he makes men- 
tion of his patron (vv. 84-89), seems to express the warmth 
of recent gratitude. In this poem, probably to gratify Pollio, 
who was of a satirical turn, he made a wanton attack on two, 
as we may suppose, bad versifiers, named Bavius and Maevius. 
Of these men we know little or nothing, but it is difficult to 
conceive that they could have given the young provincial any 
cause of enmity, for they appear to have lived at Rome, 
while he, like another Burns, did not at this time look for 
fame beyond his native province. In this very eclogue there 
is a passage (v. 105) which could have been understood only 
at Mantua. 

The Jifth eclogue was probably the next he wrote. In it 
he alludes to the second and third ; and whether, as is the 
general opinion, it is allegorical, and Daphnis is Julius Caesar, 
or the contrary, we see no reason for placing it earlier or later 
than 710-12. 

We are inclined to assign one of these years also as the date 
of the seventh eclogue. It contains no chronological marks, 
and those who place it in 714— IS, own that they have no 
proofs to offer. On the other hand, we may observe (sup- 
posing our opinion respecting the fifth to be correct) that the 
three preceding eclogues (notwithstanding the compliment to 
Pollio in the third) are purely bucolic, and that such also is 
the seventh, while the remaining six all relate to the poet him- 
self or his friends and patrons, and are therefore of a diffe- 
rent character. Further, the seventh was evidently written at 



XIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

Ancles, and we shall see reason to doubt if the poet ever 
resided much there after he recovered his lands in 712-14. 

The year 711-13 was that of the division of the lands of 
various Italian towns among the legions of the Triumvirs. 
Among these devoted towns was Cremona, and it would appear 
that the insolent soldiery, who dictated to their masters, insisted 
on a portion of the adjoining district of Mantua being included 
in the grant. Andes, which therefore could hardly be so near to 
Mantua as is said, was probably in the confiscated portion; and 
Pollio, anxious to save the young poet's property, may have ex- 
erted his influence in his favour with Maecenas, the friend and 
adviser of Caesar, to whom the task of rewarding their joint 
legions had been committed by Antonius. "Virgil visited 
Rome, now probably for the first time, furnished with letters 
from Pollio. He was fortunate enough to win the favour of 
bothMaecenas and Caesar; and to testify his gratitude, he wrote 
h'xs first eclogue, either at Rome or after his return to Andes. 

The distribution of the lands was stopped by the breaking 
out of the Perusian war. When that was terminated, in 712- 
14, Caesar sent Alfenus Varus to replace Pollio in the com- 
mand in Cisalpine Gaul, and Cornelius Gallus to levy contri- 
butions on the towns whose lands had been spared. It is 
possible that Virgil had been recommended to these men by 
Maecenas or Pollio ; but the rude soldiery had little regard 
for letters, and an officer named Arrius or Claudius, who had 
seized on his lands, drew his sword on him when he asserted 
his claim to them, and he narrowly escaped with his life. It 
is not perhaps necessary to suppose that he had to return to 
Rome on this occasion ; for as his right to the retention of his 
lands was clear, Varus could easily do him justice. It was 
probably while he was making application to Varus that he 
wrote his ninth eclogue. From a passage in this it would 
seem, that when at Rome he had made the acquaintance of 
the two most distinguished poets of that time, C. Helvius 
Cinna, the friend of Catullus and author of the Smyrna, a 
poem on which, though short, he had laboured for nine years ; 
and L. Varius, then known by his poem De Morte, Avritten 
on the death of Julius Caesar, and afterwards renowned by his 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XV 

tragedy of Thyestes. With this last he formed an intimacy 
which remained unbroken till the hour of his death. 

It was probably also in this year, and to prove his gratitude, 
that he wrote his sixth eclogue, which he dedicated to Varus, 
and in which he made honourable mention of Cornelius Gal- 
lus. Toward the end of this year also he composed his fourth 
eclogue, to celebrate the blessings that were to result to the 
Roman world from the peace of Brundisium. 

It seems not improbable that Virgil, whose health was deli- 
cate and who was devoted to literature, seeing that he was 
likely to have rude and encroaching neighbours in the soldiers 
that were settled about him, resolved to sell his property at 
Andes, and settle at Rome or in the south of Italy*. We cer- 
tainly never hear of his living again at Andes, and it is not 
likely that he would continue to hold a small estate which he 
would never visit, and which would therefore be entirely at 
the mercy of his bailiff. It would seem to have been in this 
year that he introduced Horace to the notice of Maecenas ; 
and it apparently results from this, that he was then residing 
at Rome. To this period we may, we think, refer what Bo- 
natus tells us of his having a house in that city near the gar- 
dens of Maecenas, whose gift to him it probably was. 

In the month of September, 713-15, Virgil commenced his 
eighth eclogue, at the desire of Pollio, who was then returning 
from his Illyrian campaign. This is the last mention of his 
earliest patron in our poet's works ; but as Pollio at this time 
settled for life at Rome, there is every reason to suppose that 
their intimacy was not interrupted. 

It is a disputed point in what year the journey of Maecenas 
to Brundisium, celebrated by Horace, took place. We incline 
to the opinion of those who place it in the spring of 715-17 ; 
and as Virgil was one of the party, which he joined at Sinuessa, 
he would seem to have come from Cumae or Baiae, which 
might indicate that even then he had fixed his abode in Cam- 
pania f. 

* He may have bought a property in Campania : see on Geor. ii. 224. 
f It was probably at this time that he saw the garden of the old Cory- 
cian near Tarentum, which he celebrates in the Georgics, iv. 125 seq. 



XVI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

Toward the end of 714-16 Agrippa had led an army into 
Gaul, and in the spring of 715-17 he reached the banks of 
the Rhine. As Lycoris, the mistress of his friend Gallus, had 
deserted him and accompanied that army, Virgil wrote his 
tenth and last eclogue to console him for the loss of the faith- 
less fair one. The bucolic labours of our poet thus extend 
over a period of six or seven years, — a proof perhaps of the 
slowness with which he composed. 

In this year the venerable M. Terentius Varro, then in his 
eightieth year, as he tells us, commenced his work De Re 
Rustica. As he was a ready writer, he probably published it 
in this or early in the succeeding year, and from his established 
reputation it must have attracted general attention. The poem 
too in which Lucretius had shown the superiority of the Latin 
over the Grecian Muse in didactic poetry was then the object 
of universal admiration. It seems then to have occurred to 
Maecenas, as a statesman and a man of elegant mind, that a 
work combining the practical knowledge of the one with the 
poetic charms of the other might be likely to revive in some 
degree the taste for agriculture, which had declined so much 
on account of the civil commotions and the increase of luxury. 
To one who has present to his mind the British farmer, igno- 
rant or careless of science and polite literature, as it is to be 
regretted he so generally is, this may seem to argue great sim- 
plicity in the ancient statesman ; but we must recollect that in 
ancient Italy the tenant-farmer was rare, and that the nobles 
and gentry cultivated their own estates. It was these then, a 
most highly educated class, that Maecenas had in view, and 
it was on their love of literature that he hoped to operate. 

He proposed the task to Virgil, who undertook it, though 
aware of the difficulty. We have stated that it does not ap- 
pear that he was a practical farmer ; but he must have had at 
least some general knowledge of agriculture, and he had the 
work of Varro and those of Mago and the Greeks to furnish 



Horace terminates his narrative of the journey at Brundisium, but Caesar 
and his friends afterwards went to Tarentum to visit Antonius. See Hist, 
of Home, p. 471. 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XV11 

him with information. He probably did not commence his 
poem till some time in 716-18, and he completed it in 725-27, 
a period of nine years, thus giving a year to about every two 
hundred and fifty verses, — another proof perhaps of his slow- 
ness. There is every reason to suppose that he composed it 
at Naples, where he had fixed his permanent abode on account 
of the delicious climate*. 

There is a curious circumstance connected with the Geor- 
gics. Servius and Donatus both positively assert, that the 
latter half of the fourth book was devoted to the praises of 
Cornelius Gallus, after whose death the poet, by command of 
Augustus, substituted for them the story of Aristaeus. As 
this last is evidently an integrant part of the poem, and it 
seems impossible to conceive how such a long panegyric could 
have accorded with a poem on agriculture, modern critics have 
without hesitation rejected the whole account as a baseless 
fable. We do not think that they are justified in acting in 
this off-hand manner, for notices of this kind have generally 
some foundation in truth. We further think that the poem 
did in fact originally contain the praises of Gallus, and that 
we can even point out the place in which they may have stood, 
and from which they were ejected after the death of Gallus at 
the desire of Augustus, or rather by the judgement of the poet 
himself. 

Exactly in the middle of that book, when about to de- 
scribe the mode of obtaining a new stock of bees after they 
had been lost, he mentions Egypt as the country in which this 
mode was most in use. Now in the very year in which he was 
writing this part of his poem, his friend Cornelius Gallus was 
appointed to the government of that country; and what could 
have been more natural for the poet than, after the description 
of the region about Alexandria (vv. 287— 9), to introduce a few 
lines in praise of his friend the new governor ? Will not the 
taking out of these lines, and the endeavour to substitute 

* In fact the whole aspect of the poem is Campanian, there being only 
one mention of his native province (ii. 198) ; for that in iii. 10 is of a dif- 
ferent character. It is for this reason that in our Notes on the Georgics 
we have had Campania chiefly in view. 



XV1U BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

something else in their stead, give an adequate solution of the 
difficulty with which this place of the poem is encumbered ? 
We of course can only give this as a hypothesis, but it seems 
to us by no means an improbable one. 

We cannot help suspecting also that during the composition 
of the Georgics, or in the two or three succeeding years, Virgil 
may have made a visit to Greece. The well-known ode of 
Horace (i. 3) is addressed to the ship in which Virgil had 
embarked, probably at Puteoli, to go, by long sea as we term 
it, to Athens (v. 6). The commentators unanimously refer 
this to 733-35, the last year of Virgil's life ; but as we think 
it could be proved that this book contains no ocles that had 
not been composed previous to 725—27, the year in which the 
title of Augustus was conferred on Caesar by the Senate, we 
feel disposed to assert that it is of an earlier voyage of his 
friend that Horace treats. This also, we need not say, is a 
mere hypothesis. 

Virgil seems now to have devoted himself wholly to the 
composition of his epic poem the iEneis. He would appear 
to have meditated a poem of this kind from an early period, 
for he gives plain hints of such a design in both the Bucolics 
and the Georgics*. As he probably began it in 723-25, and 
wrought at it till his death in 733-35, he must have produced 
about a thousand verses a year, in consequence no doubt of 
the greater facility with which narrative verse can be written 
than any other kind. During this period he probably resided 
almost exclusively at Naples ; for Ovid, who lived pretty con- 
stantly at Rome, and who was five-and-twenty at the time of 
Virgil's death, says, Virgilium vidi tantwn, which however 
may only mean that he had not, owing to that poet's death, 
the opportunity of cultivating his acquaintance. 

In 735 Virgil went over to Greece, with the intention, we 
are told, of remaining three years abroad, occupied in polish- 
ing his poem. At Athens however he met Augustus, on his 
return from the East, and he was induced to accompany him 



* See Ec. vi. 3 seq. ; Geor. iii. 46. He may, like Milton, have long had 
the design without having fixed on a subject. 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XIX 

back to Italy. He fell sick at Megara, his disorder increased 
on the voyage, and he breathed his last at Brunclisium on x. 
Kal. Octobr. (Sept. 22) in the fifty-second year of his age. 
His bones (i. e. probably his ashes) were conveyed to Naples 
and deposited in a sepulchre about two miles from that city 
on the road to Puteoli*. He is said to have composed the 
following epitaph, which was placed on his tomb : — 

Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc 
Parthenope : cecini pascua, rura, duces. 

In his person Virgil was tall and large, of a brown com- 
plexion, and somewhat clownish in his appearance. He suf- 
fered much from indigestion, being constantly afflicted with 
pains of the head and stomach, and he often threw up blood. 
He was temperate in his diet, and chaste in his person. As- 
conius asserted that he had often heard Plotia Hieria, the 
widow of L. Varius, and then an old woman, say, that her 
husband (with the usual indelicacy of the Romans on the 
subject) had offered to share her embraces with Virgil, but 
that he refused in the most decided terms. This, we think, 
should suffice to confute the story of the poet's intimacy with 
her, and his giving her the tragedy of Thyestes which Varius 
afterwards published as his own. The genius of Virgil was 
not dramatic ; but had he attempted the drama, he would pro- 
bably have selected the subject of Medea or Phaedra rather 
than that of Thyestes. 

We learn from the same authority that Virgil was of a kind 
and amiable disposition, totally devoid of envy and malignity. 
His library was open to all men of letters, the to. tmv flXcjv 
Koiv'a of Euripides was constantly in his mouth. All the emi- 
nent men of the time were his friends. He was not however 
without opponents, among whom the poet Cornificius is par- 
ticularly mentioned. His first and third eclogue were paro- 
died : the parody of the first began thus, — 

Tityre si toga calcla tibi est, quo tegmine fagi ? 



* Consequently beyond the Grotta di Posilipo. The tomb shown now 
as his is over the entrance of the Grotta on the side toward Naples. 



XX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

the other thus, — 

Die mihi, Damaete, cujum pecus, anne Latinum ? 
Non : verum Aegonis nostri sic rura loquuntur. 

When he used the word hordea, Geor. i. 210, one made this 
verse, — 

Hordea qui dixit, superest ut tritica dicat. 

Another thus completed, — 

Nudus ara, sere nudus — habebis frigora, febrem. 
Carvilius Pictor wrote an Aeneidomastix, but this of course 
was after the poet's death. 

Virgil was slow in the composition of verse: he likened 
himself to the bear, that licks her young into shape. Donatus 
tells us it was a tradition, that when writing the Georgics 
he used every morning to dictate a number of verses, and then 
work on them through the day till he had reduced them to a 
very few. He also says that he wrote the Aeneis first in 
prose, which is not unlikely ; for Racine, who resembled him 
in many points, is said to have done the same with his trage- 
dies. A further proof of the slowness and difficulty with 
which Virgil composed is furnished by the fact of there being 
such a number of imperfect verses in the Aeneis. This is 
peculiar to him ; for though Ovid, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, 
Statius and Claudian also left unfinished poems, a single in- 
complete verse does not occur in any one of these remains. 

Virgil borrowed freely, not only from the Greeks, but from 
the elder Latin poets, and even his contemporaries. We are 
told that one day, when he was seen with an Ennius in his 
hand, and was asked what he was doing with it, he replied 
that he was gathering gold out of Ennius' dunghill, — no very 
generous language to that fine old poet, if the story be au- 
thentic. 

No poet however was more fortunate than Virgil in the ac- 
quisition of fame ; for from his own time, down almost to the 
present day, he has been generally placed in the very first rank 
of poets. Notwithstanding, we are not afraid to confess our 
belief that other Latin poets equalled him, and that Ovid sur- 
passed him in true poetic genius. But he was fortunate in 
having had national subjects to work on, and thus to become 



P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XXI 

at once the national poet, while in every kind of poetry that 
he tried he was inferior to his model. 

No one, we should hope, would prefer the elaborate elegance 
of the Bucolics to the charming simplicity, the sweetness, the 
grace, the redolence of rural life and manners of the pastoral 
Idylls of Theocritus. In the Georgics his real model is Lu- 
cretius, not Hesiod ; and here fortune eminently befriended 
him, for the most attractive and most manageable of all sub- 
jects for didactic poetry beyond doubt is agriculture ; while 
the difficulties presented by that selected by Lucretius could 
only be overcome by genius of a high order. Hence then 
the Georgics is a far more agreeable poem to read than the 
De Rerum Natura, while Virgil could never have struggled 
with the difficulty of the subject in the manner in which Lu- 
cretius had done. In those places where the latter has been 
able to give the reins to his genius, we discover a natural 
vigour, a sweetness, and a sense for the picturesque, which 
Virgil did not possess. In a word, as in the case of the Bu- 
colics before and the Aeneis afterwards, the model-poet is the 
poet of nature, the imitator the poet of art and labour. Yet in 
the Georgics also there is much to admire : the language, 
though wanting in simplicity, is uniformly elegant; the ar- 
rangement is good on the whole ; the system of personification 
which he adopted animates all nature, and diffuses life and 
energy throughout the poem. Its principal fault is the arti- 
ficial character of the style, especially the contortions caused 
by the too frequent employment of the figure of rhetoric 
named Hypallage, which however has been generally admired 
as making the language more exquisite, as it is termed by the 
critics*. 

The expectations raised by Virgil's promise of an epic poem 
on a national subject were extremely high ; and if we can take 
Propertius as the organ of public opinion, it was hoped that it 
would vie with, or even surpass, the Iliasf. Augustus was so 



* See Excursus V. 

f " Cedite Komani scriptores. cedite Graii ; 

Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade." — Prop. ii. 25, 65. ., \ 



XX11 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

anxious to see at least some part of it, that he wrote from 
Spain to the poet in the most pressing terms, requesting him 
to send him, if no more, the first sketch of it, or even a single 
paragraph. This however Virgil declined doing ; but some 
time after he read to him the second, fourth and sixth books. 
The emperor's sister Octavia, who was present, fainted away 
when the lines dedicated to the memory of her son Marcellus, 
toward the close of this last book, were read ; and on recover- 
ing, presented the poet with ten seslertia* for each of those 
verses. The poem, as is well known, was not completed when 
Virgil died. Such was his natural modesty, or so conscious 
was he of its imperfections, that when on his death-bed he 
repeatedly and earnestly called for the writing-desk which 
contained it, in order that he might commit it to the flames ; 
and when he could not induce those about him to comply with 
his wishes, he left express directions to that effect in his testa- 
ment. Augustus however forbade that part of the will to be 
executed, and committed the Aeneis to the poet's friends 
Varius and Plotius Tucca, with directions to revise and emend, 
but to make no additions whatever to itf . It is this emended 
edition of the poem which we possess at present. 

The Aeneis then never received the finishing hand of its 
author, and is therefore to be judged with lenity. Making 
however all due allowance, we cannot concede that, even had 
he brought it to the highest point of perfection which he was 
capable of attaining, it could claim to be placed in the first 
rank of epic poetry. Virgil's genius was not epic ; it wanted 
variety and facility, and he had little skill in the delineation 
of character. While all the personages in Homer and Tasso 
are definite and distinct, each with his peculiar mode of think, 
ing, speaking and acting, and even Milton in his limited sphere 
of character has been able to mark distinctly each of his good 
and evil angels, — in Virgil, with the' exception of Dido, all is 
sameness ; one warrior is like another, and the Pius Aeneas is 



* That is about £80 ; as there are twenty-five of these verses, the whole 
sum was about £2000. 

f Donatus, 14 ; Plin. N. H. vii. 30 ; Gellius, xvii. 10. 



P. VIRGILIUS R1AR0. XX111 

as uninteresting a character as need be desired. This want 
of distinctiveness pervades all his poetry; hence the difficulty 
of understanding so many places of the Georgics. In his de- 
scriptions and similes there is usually something vague and 
hazy ; they do not present a clear, distinct picture to the mind 
of the artist ; while those of Homer, of Dante, of Ovid, for 
example, are as definite to the mental eye as if they were 
actually on the canvass*; and this we look upon as one of the 
tests of the true poet. We would then, placing such poets as 
Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and some others in the 
first rank, assign Virgil a place, and not the highest one, in 
the second ; for Ave regard Tasso, Ariosto, Ovicl (the ancient 
Ariosto) and Spenser as his superiors in original native ge- 
nius, in the quick and ready conception of poetic forms, and 
in the spontaneous effusion of poetic expression f. 

It is surprising how little of originality there is in the 
Aeneis:p. At every step in it we are reminded of the Ilias or 
the Odyssey ; elsewhere we meet with Apollonius Rhodius ; 
and had the old poem of Naevius on the first Punic war come 
down to us, we should in all probability have found the source 
of much that now appears original. Thus we have every rea- 
son to suppose that it was after him that he brought Aeneas 
to Carthage and made him be acquainted with Dido ; in 



* See, for example, in Homer the simile, II. iv. 422 ; in Ovid that Met. 
iii. Ill ; in Dante that Purg. C. iii. st. 27. 

t Virgil nor Lucan, no nor Tasso more 
Than hoth. — Carew, Poems, p. 100. 

The late Robert Southey rated Statius hefore Virgil in original genius. 
We demur to this decision, for our opinion of Statius is not very high. 
Had he said Valerius Flaccus we might not have disagreed much with him, 
for this was a poet of true original genius. In his Argonautics, though 
treating of the same subject with Apollonius Rhodius, he never imitates 
him, and he has contrived to give to the voyage of Jason a degree of no- 
velty that is surprising. We cannot account for the neglect with which 
he has always been treated ; we know he is not deserving of it. 

J " If you take from Virgil his diction and metre, what do you leave 
him?" — Coleridge, Table-talJc, p. 29 ; see also p. 1S3, 1st edit. 

" Take from him what is in Homer, what do you leave him ? " — Johnson 
in Boswell, ix. 310, edit. 1835. 



XXIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

Naevius, Aeneas consults the Sibyl at Cumae, and he probably- 
had narrated the whole voyage of the founder of the Roman 
dominion which Virgil adorned from the Odyssey. Again 
we repeat that Virgil was fortunate in his choice of a subject ; 
while other poets were transplanting the mythic tales of 
Greece, and thus making their poems exotics in Latium, he 
selected the only national subject that was capable of the em- 
bellishments of poetry, and thus became the national poet, the 
Latin poet car e&xw- 

We have given it as oar opinion that Dido is the only cha- 
racter in the Aeneis that shows the hand of a master. It is a 
curious fact, when we consider Virgil's disposition, mode of 
life and character, that disappointed affection is his favourite 
subject, and that of which he excels in the delineation. In 
the Bucolics we have that of Corydon, of Damon, and of 
Gallus ; in the Georgics we may say that of Orpheus; and in 
the Aeneis, his masterpiece, that of Dido, and slightly that 
of Turnus. Yet Virgil could hardly have had personal expe- 
rience of the pangs of slighted love ; he must have derived his 
knowledge of them from Euripides * and other poets, and, 
owing to some natural aptitude of mind for the task, have 
succeeded in producing the fine pictures of these mental tor- 
ments which adorn his poems. The same was the case with 
the French poet Racine ; he has created the Hermione, the 
Roxane, the Phedre, and other characters of this nature, and 
yet we know that he never felt a strong attachment, was per- 
haps incapable of feeling it, for any woman whatever. 

We have thus sketched a Life of Virgil, expressing our 
opinions and our conjectures, well aware that some will be 
contested and some rejected, but still hoping that we have 
elucidated it in some small degree. 



* In page 138 we inadvertently named Apollonius Rhodius instead of 

Euripides. 



C. .ASINIUS POLLIO. 



C. ASINIUS POLLIO. 



The Asinian gens originally belonged to Teate, the chief town 
of the Marrucinians, one of the peoples of the Marsian con- 
federation*. Cn. Asinius settled at Rome where his son Caius 
(surnamed Pollio) was born in the year 677-79. His father 
being a man of property, and his own inclination leading him 
to literature, the young Pollio appears to have received an 
excellent education. In the one-and-twentieth year of his 
age (698-700) he made his first appearance in public life as 
the accuser of C. Cato for having violated the laws in his tri- 
bunate of the preceding year ; but the influence of Pompeius 
was exerted in favour of the accused, and he was of course 
acquitted. 

Pollio probably remained at Rome till the breaking out of 
the civil war. It was doubtless at this time that Catullus 
wrote the verses to Pollio's brother Asinius, in which he praises 
the honourable character of Pollio, and terms him leporum 
Disertus puer acfacetiarumf. Pollio deplored the civil com- 
motions about to ensue ; but finding, as he himself says J, that 
he must take a part, as he had great enemies on both sides, he 
shunned, he adds, the camp, in which he could not be secure 
against his enemy (probably Pompeius)", and joined that of 
Caesar, by whom of course his talents and his literary pursuits 
were duly appreciated, and who instantly took him into his 
confidence. 

Pollio was one of those with whom Caesar deliberated pre- 
vious to the passage of the Rubicon. He held a command in 
the army sent under Curio to reduce Sicily and Africa ; after 
whose defeat and death he took the chief command, and 
effected his escape from Africa, though with loss and difficulty. 
He was present at Pharsalia. On his return thence to Rome 
he was probably made one of the tribunes of the people, and 
was active in opposing the measures of Dolabella for an abo- 
lition of debts. He accompanied Caesar to Africa and Spain, 

* Catull. xii. 1 ; Sil. Pun. xvii. 453 ; Liv. Epit. 73. 
t Catull. xii. 8. J Cic. ad Fam. x. 31. 

b 



XXVI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

and fought at Munda ; and it would appear that he was one 
of the fourteen praetors made by Caesar on his return to Rome. 
As Sex. Pompeius was soon again in arms, Caesar committed 
to Pollio the government of Ulterior Spain. In his campaign 
against Sex. Pompeius he met with a defeat ; for the country- 
was in favour of his opponent, and his father's veterans who 
were in his army burned to efface the disgrace of Munda. 
He would probably not have been able to maintain himself in 
his province, had not peace been made with Pompeius after the 
murder of the Dictator. 

During the eventful period that succeeded, Pollio remained 
in his province. In his extant letters to Cicero* he expresses 
much zeal for the republic, but pleads want of instructions and 
the difficulty of marching an army through the province of 
Lepidus without his consent as an excuse for his inaction. In 
September 709-1 1 , after the coalition of Caesar with Antonius 
and Lepidus (deeming perhaps the cause of the republic hope- 
less), he joined them with his three legions, and induced Ma- 
natius Plancus to follow his example. He was at the meeting 
near Bononia (not of course in the island), and the name of 
his father-in-law was the third on the tables of proscription, 
probably with his consent. He was one of those designated 
by the triumvirs for the consulate. 

The government of the country beyond the Po was now 
committed by Antonius to Pollio as his legate. On the break- 
ing out of the Perusian war, Pollio marched his troops out of 
his province, ostensively with the intention of supporting L. 
Antonius, but he remained again inactive. At the end of that 
war Caesar sent Alfenus Varus to supersede him in his pro- 
vince. Pollio kept his troops on the coast, in order to favour 
the landing of M. Antonius ; and he gained over to his side 
Domitius, who was cruising in the Adriatic. He was one of 
the negociators of the peace of Brundisium, after which he 
went to Rome and entered on the consulate, for which he had 
been designated in 709-11. In the following year he go- 
verned for Antonius, as pro-consul and legate, the province of 

* Cic. ad Fam. x. 31-33. 



C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. XXVU 

Illyria ; and when the Parthinians and some other tribes rose 
in rebellion, he subdued them and took the town of Salona by 
storm. He triumphed on his return to Rome, after which he 
retired from public life, devoting himself to literature. When 
Caesar asked him to accompany him to Actium, his reply was 
" My deserts toward Antonius are too great, his benefits to 
me too well known ; I will therefore keep aloof from your 
contest and be the booty of the victor." Pollio continued to 
cultivate literature to the end of his life. He founded, out of 
the spoils of his Illyrian war, a public library in the Atrium 
Libertatis, which he adorned with the busts of those most 
distinguished in literature. He did not however totally with- 
draw from public life ; he gave his attendance in the senate, 
and was on terms of intimacy with Augustus. He died at his 
villa near Tusculum in 756-58. 

Pollio was distinguished as an orator, a historian and a poet. 
In his oratory he is said to have shown both vigour and wit ; 
but he was bitter and sarcastic, and his action was wanting in 
grace. His history of the civil wars displayed candour and a 
love of truth and liberty, without passing the limits of discre- 
tion. His poetry was dramatic and of course imitated from 
the Greek ; it is praised by both Virgil and Horace. 



C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. 

C. Cornelius Gallus was born at Forum Julii (Frejus), in 
Narbonese Gaul*, in the year 686-88. He is said to have 
been of humble origin -j-, but this perhaps only means that his 
family was not noble. Of the events of his early life nothing 
is known. It seems probable that, like the people of the 
Gauls in general, he took the side of Caesar in the civil war ; 
for we find him on terms of great intimacy with Asinius Pollio 
previous to 709-11 ; in which year Pollio, writing to Cicero J, 



Suet. Oct. 66. f Id. ib. % Cic. ad Fam. x. 31. 

b2 



XXV111 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

tells him, if he wishes to read a play which he mentions, to 
get it from his friend Cornelius Gallus. As Gallus could not 
have been more than one-and-twenty at that time, and Pollio 
probably was not much in Rome after the breaking out of the 
war, their intimacy, it is likely, commenced in the camp of 
Caesar. It is also likely that Gallus attached himself to the 
party of the younger Caesar, for we are told* that in 711-13, 
when the confiscations to reward the veterans began to be put 
into effect, he was assigned the task of collecting money from 
those towns beyond the Po of which the lands were to be 
spared. As Mantua was one of these, his intimacy with Virgil 
may have commenced on this occasion. We hear nothing 
more of Gallus till after the battle of Actium, when we find 
him in command of a division of Caesar's army, taking the 
town of Paraetonium in the west of Egypt, and defending it 
against Antonius with success. When Caesar was leaving 
Egypt after the death of Antonius, 722-24, he committed the 
government of it to Cornelius Gallus. The people of two 
of the Egyptian cities having risen in arms, to resist the tribute 
imposed on them, Gallus suppressed the revolt without diffi- 
culty ; but elated with prosperity, he lost sight of prudence, 
and gave the enemies, whom a man like him was sure not to 
want, an opportunity of injuring him in the mind of the sus- 
picious Augustus, by causing statues of himself to be erected 
in various parts of Egypt, and his deeds to be engraved on 
the Pyramids f. By a late writer! we are also told that he 
was charged with pillaging his province ; but for this charge 
there does not seem to be any foundation. In consequence 
of these charges he was removed from his government, and 
on his return to Rome Augustus forbade him his presence and 
prohibited him from entering his provinces §. When it be- 
came manifest that he had lost the favour of the prince, new 
accusers appeared and new charges were made against him, 
and the Senate decreed that he should be banished and his 
property be seized to the use of Augustus. Gallus, unable to 

* Serv. on Ec. vi. 64. f Dion. Cass. liii. 23, 24. 

J Ammian. Mar. xvii. 4. § Sueton. ut sup. 



C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. XXIX 

bear this misfortune, put a termination to his life (726-28) : 
he was in the fortieth year of his age at the time. Augustus 
praised the dutiful conduct of the Senate, but shed tears for 
Gallus, and complained that to him alone it was not permitted 
to be as angry as he pleased with his friend *. 

Gallus, like Pollio, beside being a statesman and a warrior, 
was an orator, a poet and a patron of learned men. His 
friendship for and patronage of Virgil have given him endu- 
ring fame. The extant work of Parthenius of Nicaea, Ilept 
epb)TiK<5i> Tradr)jxaT(x)v, is addressed to him, and was apparently 
compiled at his desire. The grammarian Q. Caecilius Epirota, 
the freedman of Atticus, when dismissed on account of a sus- 
picion of too great intimacy with the daughter of his patron, 
the wife of Agrippa, whom he was engaged to instruct in lite- 
rature, betook himself to Gallus, who retained him on terms of 
the greatest intimacy ; and this is stated to have been one of 
the heaviest charges made against Gallus by Augustus f. The 
poems of Gallus are said J to have consisted of translations 
from Euphorion and of four books of elegies, of which the sub- 
ject was his mistress Lycoris. This is said to have been Volum- 
nia, the freedwoman of a senator named Volumnius, with 
whom Gallus had a connexion, similar to that of Tibullus 
with his Delia, and Propertius with his Cynthia. She is ge- 
nerally supposed to be the Mima Cytheris who had been the 
mistress of M. Antonius, but of this there is no certainty. 
When in 715-17 Agrippa led an army into Gaul and crossed 
the Rhine §, Lycoris, with the faithlessness common to her 
kind, deserted Gallus and accompanied some officer in that 
army. Gallus, who it would appear had a command in the 
army which Caesar was assembling in the south of Italy, to 
act against Sex. Pompeius, was much affected by her perfidy; 
and^his friend Virgil, who, as we have reason to suppose, was 
then residing in Naples or its vicinity, wrote his tenth eclogue 
to console him. He had already introduced his praises into 



* Sueton. ut sup. f Sueton. De 111. Gram. 16. 

X Serv. on Ec. x. § Id. ib. 



XXX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

his sixth eclogue, and at a later period he inserted them in his 
Georgics*. 

As a poet, Gallus is described by Quintilian as being some- 
what rugged (durior) ; his poems are all lost, but, according 
to Servius, Virgil has inserted a few of his verses in the tenth 
eclogue. 

* See Life of "Virgil, p. xvii. 



CONTENTS, 



Notes on the Bucolics. Page 

Eclogue I 1 

Observations 13 

Eclogue II 16 

Observations 26 

Eclogue III 29 

Observations 46 

Eclogue IV 49 

Observations 58 

Eclogue V 62 

Observations 72 

Eclogue VI 76 

Observations 88 

Eclogue VII 90 

Observations 101 

Eclogue VIII 102 

Observations 118 

Eclogue IX 119 

Observations . a . . . . . 128 

Eclogue X 129 

Observations 138 

Notes on the Georgics. 

Book I 139 

Book II 206 

Book III „ 250 

Book IV 293 



XXX11 CONTENTS. 

Excursus. p age 

I. The River Oaxes 327 

II. Latin Participials 330 

III. Latin Middle Voice, etc 332 

IV. The Sibyl and the Return of the Golden Age 334 

V. Peculiarities of Virgil's Style 336 

VI. Corvus and Cornix 338 

VII. Abstract for Concrete 340 

VIII. On Geor. III. 400 340 

IX. Latin Contractions 342 

X. On Geor. IV. 287 346 

Terms of Husbandry 348 

Flora Virgiliana 374 



ERRATA. 

Page 2, line 9, dele oaten. 

— 25, — 7, for ttoXios read iroXids. 

— 154, — 7 from bottoin,/or re read eo. 

— 178, — 17, for sultemen read subtemen. 

— 328, — 3, for TreXidSos read HqXeiaSos. 

— 356, — 8 from bottom,/or fodere read podere. 
Geor. ii. 350 seq. We fear that we have not given the true sense of this 

passage. The stone or tile it would appear was to be in the earth, but 
above the root of the plant, not about it, like the stones and shells pre- 
viously mentioned; see Colum. hi. 11. 



ADDITIONAL CORRECTIONS. 



Page xv. line 17, after this add or rather in the following. 

— xvii. — 2, for Tlh-11 read 723-25, and correct accordingly the 

following computation. 

— xix. — 4, dele the parenthesis. 

— xxviii. — 3, for one read two. 

— 28, last line but one, for as read a. 

— 33, — 24-27, dele who and and for We...... original read 

This we would explain by supposing that Damoetas 
may have been keeping his master's cattle, and 
that his friend Aegon, who was a shepherd, had 
requested him to mind his sheep for him a little 
while. 

— 67, — 6, for his Maevius read some one. 

— 128, last line, for surrounded by read and a grove or rows of. 

— 137. The note on v. 71 is superfluous, as the poet was 

only following the ordinary usage of the Latin 
language. 

— 138, — 24, for 714-16 read 715-17. 

— 204, — 6, after Thrace add for this sense of bis see iii. 33. 

— 254, — 22, dele or Britons. 

— 259, — 29, dele and work. 

— 262. In vv. 123-137, the poet is speaking only of the 

horse and mare. 

— 328, — 17, after 'Qpiojv add and Horace (Epod. 15, 7) has 

Orion with the first vowel in the thesis of a dactyl. 

— 332, — 21, for fluvius read pluvius. 

— 333, — 13, for perasta read peruste. 

— 335, — 25, after Xeyovres add Plato's contemporary Aristo- 

phanes has (Peace 1095) ov yap ravr elrre 
2ij3iAA.a. 

— 383, —14, for felea read felce. 

— 388, — 32, for pulse read plant. 



NOTES 



THE BUCOLICS. 



Eclogue I. — Tityrus. 



Argument. 

A shepherd named Tityrus, while seated beneath a spread- 
ing beech-tree, where he is amusing himself with playing on 
his pipe and singing the praises of his mistress Amaryllis, is 
accosted by a neighbouring swain named Meliboeus, who 
having been turned out of his lands, is driving his flock, of 
goats before him, uncertain whither to direct his course. 
He inquires of Tityrus how he had been able to escape the 
general calamity, and when informed, congratulates him on 
his good fortune, contrasting with his felicity his own hapless 
condition. Evening comes on, and Tityrus invites Meliboeus 
to stop for the night with him in his cottage. 

Notes. 

1-5. patulae. As we shall show hereafter, this, like most 
words of the same termination, is a participial. It therefore 
differs little from patens. Servius however makes a distinc- 
tion, saying that the former was used of things which spread 
naturally, as wares, arbor, crux; the latter, of such as opened 
and shut, as ostium, oculi. Statius seems not to have known 
this distinction, for he says (Theb. i. 588),patulo caelum ore 
trahentem, and (iv. 792) patulo trahit ore diem, speaking in 



both places of a child. — tegmine, a contraction of tegimine, or 
tegumine. Virgil in the employment of this word follows Lu- 
cretius, who uses it more than once, as sub eodem tegmine 
caeli, ii. 661. —fagtis, the beech-tree. For this and the names 
of all other plants and flowers, see the Flora at the end of this 
volume. — 2. Silvestrem musam, woodland or rural muse, i. e. 
song ; the Muse, like Ceres and Bacchus for example, being 
put for the thing over which she presided. — tenui arena, slen- 
der oaten pipe. In the picture in the celebrated Vatican MS., 
which is supposed to be of the fifth century, and the pictures 
in which are probably copied from still older ones, Tityrus is 
represented as playing on an instrument resembling the Cen- 
namella of the modern Italian peasantry, which we shall de- 
scribe in our Observations on the third Eclogue. It is how- 
ever probably the fistula, or Pandean pipes, the usual instru- 
ment of the ancient shepherds, that the poet means in this 
place. Arena is here apparently merely used as equivalent to 
calamus, the proper term for the reed of which the fistula was 
made, and which the poet uses v. 10. (Cf. vi. 8.) Ovid also 
(Met. ii. 677. viii. 191) uses it for the tubes of the fistula. 
Voss however, who takes all things in the most literal and nar- 
row sense, understands by arena the corn-pipe of straw, such 
as young children amuse themselves with, not considering the 
ridiculous picture which a grey-headed man blowing a corn- 
pipe presents. — meditaris, practise. Simidque ad cursuram 
meditabor me ad ludos Olympiae. Plaut. Stich. ii. 2, 33. Me- 
ditor is the Greek fxeXe-uw: for it is a curious fact, that though 
d and / are not letters of the same organ, or even of the same 
class, they are commutable; as Zaitpvov, lacrima; cicada, cicala 
(Ital.), cigale (Fr.); hedera, ellera (Ital.), lierre (Fr.). In the 
Sicilian dialect the Italian 11 is uniformly represented by dd. 
— 3. Nos, i. q. ego, in the usual Latin manner. — et. This conj. 
is frequently used by Virgil to connect words which are epexe- 
getic or explanatory of what precedes. It then answers to 
eren in our translation of the Bible. — k.fugimus. There is an 
ascending gradation here from the preceding linquimus; I 
not merely quit my country, I fly, as it were, from it, such is 
the violence used toward me. — lentus, stretched, reclined. By 



ECLOGUE I. 1-12. 3 

a principle of the Latin language, hereafter to be explained, it 
is the same as lenitus, and is the part, of lenio, to relax or 
soften. Its primary meaning therefore is relaxed, from which 
those of flexible, sloiv, tough, etc. are easily deduced. — 5. reso- 
nate, to give back or echo, i]yjTiv. Cf. Geor. iii. 338. — Ama- 
ryllida, the name or praises of his mistress Amaryllis. 

6-10. deus. He calls the person to whom he was indebted 
for his present felicity (otici) a god. There is no doubt that 
the person meant was Caesar Octavianus. As it was the gene- 
ral belief of at least the educated classes at that time at Rome, 
that the gods of the popular creed were merely deified men, 
there was little or nothing of impiety in giving to a man while 
living the divine honours which he was sure to obtain after 
his death. Cf. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 15. Tityrus means that he 
would worship Caesar (or probably his Genius) along with his 
Lars or household-gods, as it sometime after became the gene- 
ral custom to do. See Hor. C. iv. 5, 34 — 7- illius. Virgil here 
and elsewhere shortens the penult, in this word. Cf. Geor. i. 
49; Aen. i. 16. etc. He takes, like other poets, the same liberty 
with ipsius, alius and solius. — 8. nostris. The same as meos in 
next verse. — inbuet, sc. sanguine. — agnus. Some offered a pig, 
others a lamb, others a calf to their Lar, according to their cir- 
cumstances or their piety. See Tibull. i. 1, 21. — 9. ipsum i. e. 
meipsum. — 10. ludere. This verb is not to be taken in the 
modern sense of the word play, as when we speak of playing 
the flute : it was used to express any employment that was 
not of a serious nature. Cf. vi. 1. 

11-18. magis i. q. potius. See Lucr. ii. 385, 428, 868; 
Catull. Ixviii. 30. — 12. Usque adeo, to such a degree. This 
is a common Lucretian phrase. With respect to adeo, where 
ad is apparently joined with an abl. we may notice the fol- 
lowing observation of Priscian (De xii. vers. Aen. xii. 200) : 
" Solent componi ablativi cum praepositionibus quae etiam 
accusativo separatim solent conjungi, quapropter, quocirca, 
praeterea ; sic etiam interea." Adeo, antea, postea, antehac 
and posthac would seem to have escaped his observation. 
This theory is however disputed at the present day, and in 
fact we do not see how the ea in interea, for instance, could be 

b2 



4 BUCOLICS. 

an ablative. — turbatur, there is such distraction and confusion 
all through the country. — ipse, I myself, a sharer in the com- 
mon calamity. — 13. Protenus i. q. protinus, i. e. according to 
the critics, porro torus, on, onwards. We however rather 
think that pro is taken here in the same sense as the Greek 
irpu, and as in projicio, progredior. — aeger, sick at heart. This 
adj. is used of the mind as well as the body. Cf. Aen. i. 208, 
351, etc. — vix duco, I lead with difficulty, she is so weak. — 
15. Sjiem gregis, the hope of my flock, i.e. the means of keep- 
ing it up. Cf. Geor. iii. 73. — silice in nuda, on the bare rock 
or stones. Possibly it means the road, as the Roman roads 
were paved with sitex. We cannot see, with Heyne, an allusion 
to the practice of putting straw or fern under the sheep in the 
stalls. Geor. iii. 297. In all countries sheep and goats yean in 
the fields, in Italy frequently on the roads as they are driven 
along them. — connixa. This is the only instance of the em- 
ployment of this word in the sense of bringing forth. Ser- 
vius says it is used for enixa to avoid a hiatus ; but we rather 
think, with La Cerda and Fea, that the poet selected it to ex- 
press the pain and difficulty of the goat's labour. — reliquit. 
This would seem to intimate that the kids were born dead, or 
died soon after their birth ; for kids and lambs can walk as 
soon as they are born, and Meliboeus would probably have 
carried them sooner than leave them to die of hunger. — 16. 
laeva, stupid, as dexter is quick, expert. The idea is taken 
from the hands. — 17. De caelo tactas sc.fulmine, struck with 
lightning. This is a common expression in Livy and other 
prose writers. — praedicere i. e. praedixisse. The inf. pres. for 
the inf. past. — quercus. The striking of the oak Pomponius 
I tells us indicated exile. The verse Saepe, etc. which follows 
here in some editions is wanting in all the good MSS. It 
occurs in its proper place Ec. ix. 15, and was probably written 
in the margin of some ancient copy by way of illustration, 
and was thence taken into the text, — a common practice. — 
18. da, i. e. die, as accipe is i. q. audi. Cf. Aen. ii. 65. vi. 136, 
etc. Sed da mihi nunc ; satisne probas ? Cic. Acad. i. 3, 10. 
Aeneas eripuisse datur. Ovid. Fast. vi. 434. 

20-26. The following roundabout narrative was probably 



ECLOGUE I. 12-28. 5 

intended for an imitation of the mode of narration of the 
peasantry. — 21. huic nostrae, this town of ours. He nowhere 
mentions its name. — 22. depellere fetus. The usual sense of 
this is to ivean, and it is so understood by Servius, who is fol- 
lowed by Bunnann and Fea ; but La Cerda, Ruaeus, Heyne, 
and all the late editors render it to drive, in favour of which 
they quote In inferas partes depelli (succum), Plin. N. H. ii. 
78, and Silicem quern montibus altis Depulerat torrens, Sil. ix. 
396, neither of which appears to us to be to the purpose. 
They also refer to the relative situation of Virgil's farm on an 
eminence at Andes, and Mantua lying in the plain. But see 
the Observations on this eclogue. In favour of the first in- 
terpretation it may be observed, that young lambs and kids are 
never driven to market in any country. The Roman shep- 
herds of the present day, Fea says, carry to market in panniers 
on horses their young lambs, which they call abacc hi (i. e. 
abacti ?) ; and Columella tells us (vii. 3), that the shepherds 
who lived near towns sold their lambs when very young to the 
butchers, in order that they might have the entire profit of 
the milk, a valuable article in hot countries., Horace seems 
to speak (Ep. i. 15, 35) of lamb's flesh as a cheap and inferior 
kind of food, and at the present day the lamb to be bought in 
Rome and other Italian towns is miserably small. It is ob- 
jected, that if this be the sense of depellere in this place, we 
must, with Bunnann, change quo in v. 21 into quoi, the ancient 
dative. But there is no necessity for this ; for the adverb quo, 
whither, is, it would seem, a dative (contr. of quoi) signifying 
to ivhich ; and the only difference is, that it would be for in- 
stead of to which. Perhaps the whole difficulty arises from 
Virgil, who was not a practical farmer, not being always strictly 
correct in his use of rural terms. — 25. urbis. Here and in v. 
20 we must render urbs, town, for Tityrus knew nothing of 
cities. — 26. cupressi. There is a violation of poetic propriety 
here, for the cypress is not one of the indigenous trees of Italy, 
and so could hardly be familiar to shepherds. 

27. tanta, so great, that could take you so long a journey. 

28-36. Libertas, liberty, the desire of obtaining my free- 
dom. Tityrus, like nearly all other farm-servants at that time 



BUCOLICS. 



in Italy, was a slave, and his master is represented as residing 
at Rome. Meliboeus, on the contrary, might seem to be a 
proprietor, unless he is to be supposed as removing his master's 
flock. — sera, i. e. quanquam sera. — rcspexit, looked back on. 
Liberty is to be conceived as preceding and looking back on 
him, as if inviting him to join her. — inertem, inert, making no 
effort to obtain his freedom. — 29. Candidior, etc. The comp. 
here expresses some degree of. When my beard began to 
turn gray. — 30. Heyne was inclined to reject this verse as un- 
worthy of the poet ; but it is in all the MSS. and may easily 
be defended when wc consider the character of the speaker. 
Cf. iv. 60, 62. According to Cicero (Phil. viii. ] 1) a thrifty 
I slave ought to make the price of his freedom in five or six 
years. — 31. Poslquum, etc. It was the custom of the Romans 
to give their slaves companions of the other sex ; their union 
was named contubcrnium. A similar practice prevailed in our 
own colonies during the existence of slavery in them. Galatea 
and Amaryllis were the successive contubernales of Tityrus. 
— luibet, has had. Our idiom differs from the Latin. — reliquit, 
deserted me ; perhaps died. 32. Namque, etc. Galatea being 
probably of a vain, extravagant temper, all Tityrus' savings 
and earnings went in buying her dresses and ornaments. — 
33. peculi. The peculutm (from pecus) was the cattle which 
a Roman allowed his son or his slave to possess as his own 
property and to pasture on his lands. Varro, R. R. 1, 2. — 34. 
multa victima, many a victim, i. e. a beast in such good con- 
dition as to be fit for sacrificing ; for which purpose the fattest 
and best were selected. Multus and plurimus (especially the 
latter) are frequently used thus in the sing. — saeplis (from 
saepio), i.e. ovilibus. Saeptum was originally any inclosure, 
whence the Saepta or voting-place of the tribes at Rome. — 

35. pinguis, rich. — ingratae. He uses this term with a jocose 
peevishness, as if the town, and not Galatea, were in fault. — 

36. gravis aere, heavy with (i. e. full of) money. He had laid 
it all out in the town, buying gauds for Galatea. 

37-40. I now comprehend, what I was wondering at, why 
Amaryllis was so sad, and why, what was unsuited to her 
thrifty character, she left the fruit hanging, each on its own 



ECLOGUE I. 28-46. 7 

tree. — 39. Ipsae te, etc. The very trees and founts sympa- 
thised with her grief and implored your return. Voss and 
Wunderlich understand them as merely re-echoing her ex- 
clamations, as in v. 5, but this is very prosaic. — 40. arbusta, 
the trees, i. e. the silvas of v. 5. See Terms of Husbandry, 
s. v. 

41-46. Quid facerem? etc. What was I to do? Even 
though she did thus grieve, it was only by going to Rome, 
where my master was residing, that I could obtain my free- 
dom servitio exire, sc. alibi, from v. 42. Acre alieno exire, 

Cic. Phil. xi. 6. Ex aerumna exire, Lucil. ap. Non — 42. prae- 
sentes, favourable, for those who are present can give most 
effectuafaTd. Cf. Geor. i. 10 ; Aen. ix. 404 ; Hor. S. ii. 3, 68. 
— 43. Hie, etc. Here, beside seeing my master and obtaining 
my freedom, I saw that young man (Caesar, now three-and- 
twenty), whom, as I told you (v. 7), I worship as a household 
god. — 44. His senos. The Lars were worshiped once in every 
month, on the Kalends, Nones or Ides. Cato R. R. 143. — 1 
nostra i. q. mea—fumant. Because he had begun the practice 
and would continue it. We need not therefore, with Heyne, 
explain fumant by fumabunt. — 45. Hie, as in v. 43. —primus. 
Wagner considers primus to be equivalent here to primum, 
and to signify demum, tandem, but the passages which he ad- 
duces in proof of it (Aen. ii. 375 and vii. 118) are not suffi- 
ciently to the purpose. Voss says primus is i. q. princeps. 
When we consider the involved style which Virgil afterwards 
employed in the Georgics, it appears not unlikely that the 
meaning is : He first relieved my mind from anxiety by re- 
plying, etc. The words responsum and petenti are terms used 
of the consulting an oracle. Cf. Aen. vii. 86. They are em- 
ployed here of Caesar as of a deity. — 46. pueri, my lads. 
Puer was the appellation of a slave, no matter what his age 
might be. — submittite. The critics here encounter the same 
difficulties as in depellere, v. 21, and they give us three inter- 
pretations of submittite tauros: viz. 1. Yoke your oxen. 2. 
Give your cows the bull. 3. Breed young oxen. In favour 
of the first, which is that of Servius, who is followed by 
Ruaeus, Wagner and Forbiger, it is alleged that the object 



S BUCOLICS. 

of the poet here is to indicate the two rural occupations of 
pasturage and tillage, the first by pascite, the second by sub- 
mittite, sc.jugo. But the only instance which they give of 
this sense of submitto, namely, Submiitant trepidi perfida 
colla Getae, Rutil. Itin. i. 1 42, it will be easily seen is not to 
the purpose. The second occurs only, we believe, in Palla- 
dius (ex. gr. submittendae tauris vaccae, iv. 13), a late writer, 
and who possibly may have misunderstood this very place of 
Virgil. The third is the sense in which submitto is invariably 
used by Varro and Columella, and in which it is used by our 
poet himself, Geor. iii. 73, 159. Columella even employs it 
when speaking of rearing and training the young shoots of 
the vine. It is in this last sense that Heyne, Voss, Fea and 
Jahn (with whom we agree) understand it. The original 
sense of submitto being to put under, it was used of putting 
the young to suck their mothers, and thence came to signify 
to rear in general. — tauros i. e. vitulos. Cf. iii. 86, 87. It was 
probably the metre that obliged him to use this word, the 
ambiguity of which has given rise to all the disputes about 
the meaning of submittite. 

47-59. Tityrus probably intended to go on and relate more 
of what befell him at Rome ; but Meliboeus, struck with the 
prospect of his happiness, interrupts him by an exclamation, 
and then gives vent to his feelings of admiration in a descrip- 
tion of Tityrus' land, and his occupations on it, This is highly 
natural and poetical. — senex, see v. 29. — tua. Wagner would 
explain this from the legal formula meum est, as Ec. ix. 4. 
He adds, that the emphasis should therefore be on tua, and 
not on manebunt. But this was not possible to a Roman, for 
tua here (like mea, ix. 4) is in the thesis of a dactyl. — 48. Et 
tibi, etc. And for your contented mind your land is quite 
enough, though the pasture-land is mere rock and marsh, o'er- 
grown with rushes. Your cattle will not, like mine, be ex- 
posed to disease or infection by change of pasture. — 50. graves, 
i. q. aegras, Cf. Geor. iii. 95 ; Aen. iv. 688. Gravi Malvae 
salubres corpori, Hor. Epod. 2, 57. — tentabunt, will try, i. e. 
afflict. A Lucretian term, v. 347. vi. 1135.—fetas. As this 
is the part, of an obsolete verb feo, akin to Jio, fuo and 



ECLOGUE I. 46-57. 9 

<bvtj), it should be written with an j; and not oe. Fetus (subst.) 
signifies the offspring (y. 21.); f eta is used of the mother 
either before or after parturition. The latter gives the best 
sense in this place. Cf. Aen. viii. 630 ; Hor. C. iii. 27, 4 ; Ovid 
Fast. ii. 413. — 52. Hie, etc. Meliboeus goes on picturing to 
himself the happy lot of Tityrus, stretched at his ease beneath 
a tree, enjoying the cool shade near the well-known streams 
and the founts sacred to the nymphs.— -flumina, streams. Voss 
says the Mincius and the Po, not considering the distance of 
the latter from Andes. Wagner, referring to Aen. xi. 659, 
xii. 331, the Mincius alone, and he endeavours to show that 
inter refers to the trees on its banks. Flumina for flumen has, 
we believe, always the name of the river subjoined, or at least 
(as Geor. iii. 18) it is clearly understood from having been 
previously mentioned. When Virgil uses the word flumina 
thus alone, it is generally best rendered by our word streams. 
— 53. frigns opaciim, the shady cool, i. e. the cool shade. — 
captabis. Capto is the freq. of capio, See on ii. 8. — 54. Hinc 
tibi. We are to suppose Meliboeus pointing out the objects 
as he names them. On this side is the meering or boundary- 
hedge of sallows between you and your next neighbour, on the 
blossoms of which feed the bees, whose humming will invite 
you to sleep. The constr. is Hinc, a vicino limite, saepes, quae 
semper Hyblaeis apibus (quoad) florem salicti depasta (est) 
saepe tibi levi (apum) susurro suadebit somnum inire. How 
very remote from the graceful simplicity of Theocritus ! — ab 
limite, like ab ovilibus, v. 8, and pastor ab Amphryso, Geor. iii. 2. 
It is in the same kind of apposition with hinc as ad veteres fagos 
with hie, iii. 12. — semper. Not all through the year, of course, 
but whenever the sallows are in blossom. — 55. Hyblaeis. Mount 
Hybla, in Sicily, was famous for honey. We may here note a 
favourite practice of the Latin poets, namely, when they men- 
tioned any practice, implement, natural product, etc., to join 
with it an adj. of a people or place most famed for it. Virgil 
makes great use of this practice, of which we meet no ex- 
amples in Lucretius or the other earlier poets. Cf. v. 27, 29. 
ix. 30. x. 59 ; Geor. iii. 345, 526. iv. 270, etc.— depasta. See 
on vi. 15. — 57. Hinc. Pointing to the rocky boundary at the 



10 



BUCOLICS. 






other side of the land — aha sub rupe, at the foot of the high 
rock. Burmann says that sub rupe is i. q. in rupe. — -frondator, 
the leaves-gatherer. Cf. ix.61. Pliny (H. N. xviii. 31.) says he 
was required to fill four baskets in the day. In Italy the leaves 
were, and still arc, stripped oft 1 the trees as food for cattle, or for 
beds for them, or even for the peasants themselves. Cf. v. 80. 
There is no need of restricting frondator, with Heyne and Voss, 
to the vine-dresser. — ad auras, aloud. Cf. Aen. vi. 561. — 58. 
raucae palumbcs, the hoarse wood-pigeons, in allusion to their 
note. — tua cura, your favourites, the objects of your affection. 
Cf. x. 22 ; Geor. iv. 354 ; Aen. i.682. iii. 476, etc.— 59. gemere. 
This is the peculiar term for the cooing of the dove and pigeon. 
— aeria, aereal, i.e. rising high into the air. Virgil uses it of 
trees, rocks, mountains, etc. Cf. iii. 69; Geor. i. 375. iii. 474. 
iv. 508 ; Aen. iii. 680, etc. 

59-64. Sooner therefore, says Tityrus, shall impossible or 
most unlikely things occur than the image of my benefactor 
be effaced from my bosom. — Ante leves, etc. The nimble deer 
shall browze up in the sky. We take leves as an ordinary 
epithet of the deer, and not, as some critics seem to do, to 
denote their flying like birds. — 61. Etfreta, etc. The meaning 
would seem to be that the fish shall dwell on the land : but in 
that case it is very awkwardly expressed. As for the sea's 
throwing the fish up on the shore, there would be nothing so 
very wonderful in it.— freta, straits, i. e. maria, part for whole. 
Cf. Geor. ii. 503 ; Aen. i. 611. iii. 127, etc.— 62. Ante, etc. The 
Germans and Parthians were at this time the only peoples of 
any account that were not subject to the Romans. As their 
names must have been in every one's mouth, it was not perhaps 
out of character to make a shepherd speak of them, though 
Theocritus would hardly have done so. In making the Arar 
or Saone a river of Germany, the poet commits a geographical 
error. Some say he did so on purpose, as shepherds are sup- 
posed to be ignorant in such matters. Wagner thinks the 
solution lies in pererratis finibus ; for Avhen the Parthian had 
passed the western frontier of Germany, he would come to the 
Arar in Gaul; but in this case Tityrus should have named the 
Indus, and not the Tigris, as being the river beyond the east- 



ECLOGUE I. 57-70. 11 

ern frontier of Parthia. But the true solution seems to be the 
poet's ignorance or negligence. — exsul is one who has volun- 
tarily quitted his country. See Hist, of Rome, p. 83. — 63. 
Germanic/,, the country put for the people, perhaps for the 
sake of the metre ; but at all events, it shows that the poet 
means a general migration of each people (like that of the 
Helvetians a few years before), and its occupying the seats of 
the other. 

65-78. Meliboeus, struck by the idea of migration and 
change of country suggested by the latter words of Tityrus, 
paints the distant regions beyond the bounds of the Roman 
empire, to which himself and his companions in calamity will, 
he supposes, be obliged to travel in search of a settlement. 
Some of us, says he, will have to go southwards among the 
Africans, others northwards to Scythia, and the region through 
which the Oxus, laden with clay, rolls its turbid waters ; others 
to the nearly unknown isle of Britain — sitientes, thirsting, i. e. 
parched by the heat of the sun, theGaetulians and other peoples 
toward the interior of Africa. — 66. rapidum cretaeOaxem. See 
Excursus I. — 67. Et peniius, etc. The ancients (see Mytho- 
logy, p. 32) regarded the earth (orbis terraritm) as a circular 
disk round which the Ocean flowed. Britain therefore, lying in ' 
the ocean, was no part of the orbis terrarum. In a similar 
sense Horace says (C.i. 35, 29.), Ultimos orbis Britannos. — 
68. En. This word is used here to call attention to the ex- 
pression of his feelings, just as the modern Italians use their 
ecco (ecce) so frequently in the heat of conversation. It was 
an unlucky supposition of Servius, followed by Heinsius and 
Heyne, that En unquam here is i. q. unquamne. — patrios fines, 
see v. 3. — longo post tempore, i. e. say the commentators, longo 
tempore post. Post is here then, i. q.posthac, yet from this verse 
and v. 29, and Aen. vi. 409, one might almost be led to think 
that it occasionally governs the abl. — 69. tugiiri. The tugu- 
rium or hut was one of the humblest kind of dwellings, often 
roofed merely with sods (caespites). As Sallust uses this word 
for the abode of a slave (Jug. 12), perhaps we might hence 
infer that such was the condition of Meliboeus, with whom 
Tityrus seems to be quite on an equality. — 70. Post, i. e. 



12 BUCOLICS. 

posthac, repeated from v. 68. — meet regno,, i. e. the patrios fines, 
and fuffurium of the preceding verses. Cf. Geor. iii. 476. Pro- 
pert, iv. 7, 6. — aliquot mirabor aristas. I shall see with surprise 
and indignation, owing to the bad culture of the new possessor, 
only a few straggling ears of corn in the fields, which used to 
be so well tilled. Servius joins post with aliquot aristas, as 
being i. q. post multa tempora, adding, " et quasi rusticus per 
aristas numerat annos," and this would appear to have been a 
current interpretation in antiquity, for Claudian has decimas 
emensus aristas, De IV. Cons. Hon. 372. — 71. Impius. This 
word is the opposite ofjrius, which expresses the affectionate 
and dutiful feeling toward superiors, from whom we have re- 
ceived benefits, as the gods, one's parents, one's country. It 
is thus, for his dutiful conduct to his father, that the hero of 
the Aeneis is termed pius, as Metellus had been, Hist, of Rome, 
p. 329; and as the emperor Antoninus afterwards was, Hist, of 
Rom. Emp., p. 179. The soldier is here called impius, pro- 
bably in reference to the civil wars in which he had been en- 
gaged. Cf. Aen. vi. 612, 833. — novalia and segetes here sim- 
ply signify cornfields. For their exact import see the Terms 
of Husbandry, s. v. — 72. JBarbarus, i.e. one who was neither 
a Greek nor an Italian, alluding probably to the Gallic soldiers 
at that time in the Roman armies. Bapfiapos, barbarus, did 
not suggest the same ideas as our Barbarian. Jahn, with whom 
we are disposed to agree, places a comma after habebit, and a 
colon after segetes — 73. Produxit is the reading of the best. 
MSS. Others read perduxit. — quis, i. q. quibus, for whom 
(for a barbarian soldiery). — 74. Insere piros, graft your pears, 
i. e. your fruit-trees, one kind for all. This and what follows 
is spoken in bitter irony. — ordine. The vines, as we shall see 
in the Georgics, were planted in regular rows. — 76. viridipro- 
jectus, etc., lying at ease in a cavern overgrown with wild 
plants. Cf. vi. 6 : projectus expresses the act of the shepherd 
throwing himself carelessly on the ground. — 77. Dumosa de 
rupe, from the bushy rock, i. e. the rocky side of a mountain 
which is overgrown with bushes. Cf. Geor. iii. 314. — pendere, 
for goats in such situations appear to hang from the rocks. — 
78. me pascente, under my care, I feeding you. Martyn under- 



ECLOGUE I. 70-83. 13 

stands it of his feeding them out of his hand ; but this is proved 
to be incorrect by carpetis in the following verse, which is 
always used of browsing or grazing. As the cytisus and the 
sallows are plants of the plain, we may suppose that a different 
rural scene from the former is indicated. 

80-84. Meliboeus now turns to go away and pursue his 
melancholy journey, but Tityrus invites him to stop and spend 
the night with him. — poteras, you might, i. e. you have the 
power. There is no doubt, etc. expressed, and therefore he 
uses the indie, poteras, and not the subj. posses. Attamen et 
justum poteras et scribere fortem. Hor. S. ii. 1, 16. See 
Zumpt's Lat. Gram, by Schmitz, § 518. Some MSS. read 
poteris and also hac nocte. — 8 1 . Sunt nobis, I have. — mitia, ripe. 
— poma, fruits, as apples, pears, etc. Pomum expressed every 
kind of fruit that grew on trees, but not in bunches like grapes. 
Ovid (Met. iv. 51) uses it of the mulberry. — 82. molles. 
Servius makes this to be i. q. the mitia of preceding verse. 
But Spohn more justly renders it sweet, as in mollissima vina, 
Geor. i. 341 ; molle merum, Hor. C. i. 7. 19; mollia fraga, 
Ov. Met. xiii. 86. Fee says that the Italians preserve the 
chestnuts from one year to another by drying and peeling 
them, and that when they want to eat them they soften them in 
the vapour of boiling water. " Voila bien," he adds, "casta- 
neae molles." (Commentaire sur la Botanique de Pline,i.p. 259.) 
As the chestnuts ripen in October and November, the critics 
place this eclogue in these months ; but see Observations. 
—pressi lactis, i. e. cheese. — 83. Etjam, etc. The smoke rising 
from the roofs of the farm-houses shows that they were pre- 
paring supper in them, and the lengthening shadows of the 
mountains warn us of the approach of sunset. 

Observations. 
Date. — As the division of the lands among the legions of 
the Triumvirs took place in the year 711-13, we cannot assign 

V. 79 seq. "Ahov ev Tuvrpoj itap e/iiv rdv vvktcl dia%el$. 
'Evrl odcpvai rrjvei, evri padivai /cvTrapivaoi, 
'Evti jtteXas /ciffcros, evT afnreXos a y\vKvicapTro$. 

Theocr. xi. 44. 



14 BUCOLICS. 

an earlier date, and need not assign a later, to this eclogue, 
which, though first in place, is probably fourth in order of 
composition among the eclogues. — See Life of Virgil. 

Subject. — The subject of this eclogue is the favour that was 
shown to Virgil by Octavianus, in exempting his lands from 
the general confiscation that was taking place in Cisalpine 
Gaul. The poet exerts all his talent in magnifying the gene- 
rosity of his benefactor ; and it is one of his most original 
productions, as hardly a trace of imitation appears in it. 

Characters. — Instead of appearing personally in this eclogue 
as the object of Caesar's generosity, the poet has chosen to 
represent his Tityrus, in whose mouth he places the praises 
of Caesar, as an old slave, the shepherd, or rather the villicus, 
of the proprietor of the land, and who at the same time was 
emancipated by his master, who we are to suppose was re- 
siding at Rome, whither Tityrus went in order to obtain his 
freedom by paying the regulated price for it; and Tityrus, 
when become a freedman, continues in his former occupa- 
tion. To modern ideas this may appear a strange kind of 
poetic economy ; but, as we shall show in our Observations on 
the following eclogue, the ancients had hardly any peasantry 
but slaves, and such are all the characters in their bucolic 
poetry. Meliboeus, the goatherd, the other interlocutor in 
this piece, must also, from analogy, be regarded as a slave, 
who is driving away the flock of goats of which he has charge, 
but which are the property of his master whose lands have 
been seized. That these two slaves should speak of their 
master's lands and property as their own is only conformable 
to the practice of servants in all countries, and may be wit- 
nessed every day in England, where a shepherd may be heard 
speaking of his ewes and lambs, a carter of his horses, etc. 
The females Galatea and Amai'yllis are also slaves. We may 
mention, but only to reject, the absurd idea of some critics, 
that these are allegorical personages, the former representing 
Mantua, the latter Rome ; a notion long since sufficiently re- 
futed by Ruaeus. On the subject of allegory, see the Obser- 
vations on the fifth eclogue. 

Scenery. — As the characters are ideal, we shall find the 



ECLOGUE I. 15 

scenery of this eclogue to be equally devoid of reality. The 
scenery which it presents is that of a country with mountains 
(v. 83), caverns (75), rocks (15, 47, 56, 76), fountains (54), 
streams (51), and marshes (48), and containing beeches (1), 
oaks (17), elms (58), vines and fruit-trees (73), chestnuts (81), 
sallows and reeds (48, 54). This, we are assured by Voss and 
Jahn, is an accurate description of the district of Andes and 
of Virgil's farm there, within three miles of Mantua. 

Such, as we have said, is the assertion of those who have 
never seen Italy, and who seem to have deemed it needless 
to make any inquiry in what appeared to be so plain a case. 
But surely the face of the country in Lombardy has undergone 
little change since the days of Virgil ; and at the present day, 
any one who will ascend the lofty Torre della Gabbia, which 
stands in the centre of the city of Mantua, and look around 
him, will discern nothing but a plain the most level and un- 
broken that can be conceived, bounded to the north by the 
distant Alps beyond Verona, and to the south by the still more 
distant Apennines beyond Parma and Placentia. Here then 
are no mountains or even hills to cast their shades around 
Mantua (v. 83), no rocks or caverns, and, we may add, no 
chestnut-trees or beeches, for we saw neither in Lombardy. 
The former, we believe, do not usually grow in the plain; 
and Castelvetro (see Observations on Ec. vii.) asserts positively 
that they do not grow in the country round Mantua, where 
also he observes there are no goats kept. With respect to the 
beech, Holdsworth in his Letters on Italy, quoted by Heyne, 
makes the same remark as ourselves. We saw it growing 
spontaneously only in the mountains ; and Allamanni, in his 
poem ' La Coltivazione,' terms it alpestre in that sense. But 
Wagner sapiently replies, that eighteen centuries have elapsed 
since the time of Virgil, and that only a small wood of cedars 
is now to be seen on Lebanon, where they formerly abounded. 
Perhaps then the same lapse of time will account for the dis- 
appearance of the mountains, rocks and caverns in the vicinity 
of Mantua. 

The fact is, no one who has ever visited Mantua can for a 
moment believe that Virgil designed the scenery of this eclogue 



16 BUCOLICS. 

for that of his own farm and the country about it. Virgil was 
not one of those poets who write from their own inspiration. 
In his Bucolics he drew his inspiration chiefly from Theocritus, 
as afterwards in the Aeneis from Homer ; and finding in the 
Grecian poet the mountains and vales, the caverns, the springs 
and streams which Sicily presented, he with great judgement 
transferred them to his own poems, instead of giving them the 
tame features of the level plain of Lombardy. The scenery 
therefore, we repeat it, of the Bucolics is purely ideal, and 
those who endeavour to make it otherwise detract in reality 
from the merits of the poet. 



Eclogue II. — Corydon. 



Argument. 
Corydon, a shepherd, has an extreme but hopeless affection 
for Alexis, the favourite of their common master. He used 
frequently to retire to the solitary woods, and there pour forth 
his complaints. The poet here gives us a specimen of the 
effusions of the mourning swain. 

Notes. 
1-5. pastor. The pastor on a Roman farm was the person 
who had charge of the sheep or goats, and therefore answered 
to our shepherd : he was of course a slave. See Terms of 
Husbandry, s. v. — ardebat, sc. propter, he burned for, i. e. 
ardently loved. It more frequently takes an abl., see Hor. 
C. ii. 4, 7. iii. 9, 5, sometimes with in, Ov. Her. iv. 99; 
Met. viii. 50. — 2. Delicias, the pet or favourite. Passer de- 
liciae meae puellae. Catull. iii. 3. Urbanus scurra, delicice 

V. 1 seq. 'Avfjp ris iro\v<pi\rpos a7rt]veos ypar' etyafiw, 

Tav fioptyav ayaQio, rbv Se rpoirov qvk e9' 6/iotw. 
Mtffei tuv <pt\eovra, Kai ovdev ev clfiepov el%ev. 

Theocr. xxiii. 1 seq. 



ECLOGUE II. 1-12. 17 

Plaut. Most. i. 1, 14. — quid speraret, any ground of 
hope. There is a difference, Wagner says, between quid and 
quod in this construction, the latter denoting a greater degree 
of certainty ; habeo quod sperem, being, I have a certain defi- 
nite hope, habeo quid sperem, I might have some hope. We | 
are not however certain that this distinction is well-founded. 
— 3. Tantum, only. It was all he could do, or his only con- 
solation. — umbrosa cacumina. This is apparently in paren- 
thesis, or in apposition with densas fagos, to express the shade 
caused by the close-growing beeches. Cf. ix. 9. Spohn and 
Jahn, however, regard it in both places as what is called the 
Greek ace, or ace. of the remoter object with secundum un- 
derstood, and therefore take away the commas. — 4. incondita, 
unpremeditated, extemporaneous, avTo&yeBia. — 5. studio inani, 
with bootless labour. Studium, airovlri, is diligence, eagerness 
in pursuit, love of. Studio fallente laborem. Hor. S. ii. 2, 12. 
—jactabat, he used to throw out, to utter ; on account of the 
preceding incondita. 

6-13. He commences with a complaint of Alexis' want of 
feeling.- — 8. Nunc etiam, etc. The heat is now so intense that 
the sheep and goats seek the shade, the lizards that delight in 
warmth hide themselves from it in the brakes, the reapers have 
left the fields, I and the cicada alone face the burning sun ; 
i. e. it is now the noon of a summer's day. — umbras etfrigora 
i. q.frigidas umbras ; a hendyadis, i. e. ev Sia fiuolv, a common 
figure. — captant. This and occultant in the next verse are 
freq. verbs to denote that the flocks and the lizards are 
everywhere seeking shelter. 1 0. Thestylis. The name of a 
female slave. — rapido aestu. See Excursus II. — 11. Allia, etc. 
She was making for them the mess called more tum, which is 
described in a poem of that name attributed to our poet. It 
was composed of flour, cheese, salt, oil and various herbs 
(herbas olentes) brayed together in a mortar. — 12. At mecum, 

V. 6. "Q \evKa VciKareia, ri rbv <pi\eovr' cnrofiaXKy ; — Tlieoc. xi. 19. 

tiv c' ov fie\ei, ov, fid At' ovSiv. — Id. xi. 29. 

V. 7 cnrciyZcKrOai jue 7rot»j(7fi7s. — Id. iii. 9. 

V. 9. 'Av'iKa Srj Kal vavpos ef' alfia<na7(TL icaOevdei. — Id. vii. 22. 



18 BUCOLICS. 

etc. The woods resound with me and the cicadae, i. e. with 
my singing and their chirping. Cf. Geor. i. 41. ii. 8. Aen. i. 
675. Voss renders mecum round about me, referring to Aen. 
i. 572. iv. 115. v. 716. — tua vestigia. This either means that 
Alexis had gone that way, and that Corydon was following 
him ; or, which is more probable, that Corydon was going over 
the different places once trodden by Alexis. — 13. cicadis. 
The cicada (cicala, Ital., cigale, Fr.) is of the cricket tribe. 
It sits on the trees in summer, where it chirps away the whole 
day long. Its note is like that of the common cricket: no- 
thing can be more wearisome than to listen to its ceaseless 
monotony. It is probably to this that the epithet raucis re- 
fers, for its note is clear, resembling that of our house-cricket. 
Cf. i. 58. 

14-18. We are not sure that we are, with Voss, to suppose 
that Corydon plays on his fistula in the manner hereafter to 
be described, when he has finished one subject and is think- 
ing on another ; but we are certainly to suppose a pause, and 
it is to be observed that there is either no connexion, or a very 
slight one, between the successive parts of these extemporary 
songs. — -fait, i. e.fuisset. — tristes iras, the morose violent tem- 
per. See iii. SO. — 15. superba fastidia, the proud disdain. — 
16. niger, swarthy, dark, by exposure to the rays of the sun, 
in opposition to Alexis, who was a verna, and was therefore 
mostly in the house — 18. ligustra, vaccinia. See the Flora. 

19-27. His thoughts now turn to the advantages which he 
himself can boast. He is over large flocks, he plays skilfully 
on the fistula, he is not deficient in personal beauty. — De~ 
spectus, etc. I am looked down on by you ; you do not even 
deign to inquire who or what I am. If you did, you would 
find that it is in my power to give you handsome presents. — 

V. 18. Ken to lov [ie\av evri, Kai a ypairra vaiavQos. — Theoc. x. 10. 
Kai to poSov tcaKov eon icai 6 %povos ccvto jiapaivei' 
Kai to lov koXov cgtiv kv e'iapi, Kai Taxv yrjpii. 
Aev/cov to Kpivov eari, fiapaiveTCCi, av'iKa tvitctij' 
'A Se %iwx/ \evKci, Kai TctKerai, aviiza iraxQy' 
Kai kclXKos icaXoi' eon to Tcaiducov, ctXX! b\iyov Zy. 

Id. xxiii. 28 seg. 



ECLOGUE II. 12-24. 19 

20. dives pecoris. We are not to understand by this that 
the flocks were Corydon's own : it only means that they were 
under his charge, and that he could consequently make use 
of as much of their milk, etc. as he pleased. See Observations. 
— nivei lactis. Servius, Martyn and Voss join nivei -with peco- 
ris, but the present construction seems more agreeable to the 
genius of the Latin language. — 21 . Mi lie. A def. for an indef. 
number. — agnae. If he has so many lambs, he must have 
more than half that, number of ewes ; and therefore, as he adds, 
he was never without milk. — 22. lac novum, new milk; not 
biestings (colostra), as Servius understood it. — -frigore, in the 
cold weather, i. e. winter. — 23. Canto. This verb, like cano, 
of which it is the freq., signifies either to sing or to play on 
an instrument. The latter is its sense here. Cf. vi. 71. — soli- 
tus, sc. erat, cantare. — si quando, whenever. — armenta vocabat, 
i. e. revocabat or avocabat, sc. a pastu. It was the custom, 
and still is in many places, to collect the cattle by the blowing 
of a horn or some other musical sounds. The shepherd, at 
least, then preceded his charge, as may still be witnessed. 
£ls Z'oitot aypavXoio Kar i-^via <rr)[jLavri]p(>s WLvpta prjX' e<pe- 
"xovtoli aZr]v KeKoptj/jLeva ttou]s Els au\ii', 6 3e 7' eicn irapos avpiyyi 
Xiyelr] KuXa fieXi^ofxevos v6}xiov /xeXos, Ap. Rh. i.575. Mar- 
tyn refers to various places of Scripture, where the custom of 
the shepherd's preceding his flock is alluded to, as Ps. xxiii. 2. ; 
Ixxvii. 20. ; John x. 3, 4. — 24. Amphion, the son of Jupiter 
and brother of Zethus. See Mythology, p. 335 seq. — Dir- 
caeus, Theban ; from the fount of Dirce at Thebes. There 
is however perhaps an allusion to Dirce, who was slain by 
Amphion and his brother. — Actaeo Aracyntho. There is a great 
difficulty here. Actaeus is i. q. Atticus (ab clkd)), and the 
only mountain of the name of Aracynthus that is known was 
in Acarnania, far away from Attica. In the mythe the early 

V. 20-23. 'AM' (jjvtos, toiovtos ewv, fiord x^Xia /3o<tkw, 

Kat tovtiov to KpcLTwrov ajueXyojuei'os ydXa ttivio' 
Tvpos d' ov XeiTret (i ovr' kv Bepei ovt' ev OTrwpa, 
Ov %fii/xtuvos aicpw rapaoi S' inrepaxOees alei. 
TvpiaSev 8' ttis ovns eTr/ora/xat w§e KvkXwttwv. 

Theoc. xi. 34 seq. 



20 BUCOLICS. 

days of the brothers were spent on Mt. Cithaeron. As Ste- 
phanus Byzantinus has 'Apawrdos, opos Boiwrias, it may have 
been a part of Parnes or Cithaeron. Propertius (who may 
however be only following this place of Virgil) says (iii. 13, 
41), victorque canebat Paeana Amphion rupe, Aracynthe, 
tua. Heyne thinks that Virgil was only translating a Greek 
verse, 'Afitpiwv AtpcaTos kv 'Aktciiu) 'Apaicvrdo). The o in Ac- 
taeo is not elided as being in arsis. — 25. informis. This dif- 
fers from deformis ; the former being the original want of 
beauty, the latter the privation of it. — in litore, i. e. standing 
on the shore he saw himself in the water. Our poet here 
follows Theocritus, and neither poet is perfectly true to nature ; 
for as Seneca (Q. N. v. 1.) and Servius observed, and every 
one may observe, the waters of the sea, even of the tranquil 
Mediterranean, never are still, and so never could form a 
mirror, even for the Cyclops. In one respect the Greek poet 
is more incorrect than the Latin, for he makes the water 
reflect the whiteness of the Cyclops' teeth, while water does 
not reflect colour except in large masses. — 26. placidum ven- 
tis, i. e. a ventis, says Spohn, as in nam incendio fere tuta est 
Alexandria. Hirt. Bell. Alex. c. 1. Wunderlich compares pla- 
cidi straverunt aequora venti, Aen. v. 763., and says it is i. q. 
ventis sopitis or cum venti quievere. This last opinion may be 
correct ; for it was Virgil's practice, of which we shall find 
many examples in the Georgics, to join with one subst. the adj. 
properly belonging to the other. For the proper meaning of 
placidus, see on v. 10. — staret. The verb sto, as in the Italian 
and Spanish languages, often took the place of sum ; but the 
idea of steadiness or immobility was always included. — Daph- 
nim. This is probably the name of some other swain, who was 
known to be handsome, and was also an admirer of Alexis. 
Servius thinks it was the celebrated Sicilian Daphnis, the son 



V. 25. Kai yap Qrjv ovd' eloos 6%w kcikov, ws pe Xeyovri' 
'H yap izpav es ttovtov eveftXeirov (rjs Se yaXdva), 
Kal KctXd fiev rd yeveia, KaXd ve jxoi d jxia Kwpa 
('Qs rrap' ep.lv iteicpiTai) Karetpa'iveTO' tQv 8e r 6S6vru)v 
AevKorepav avydv Uapias V7re<j>cave XLQoio. — Theoc. vi. 34 seq. 



ECLOGUE II. 24-34. 21 

of Mercury and a nymph, for whom see Obs. on Ec. v. — 
27. si nunquam, etc. i. e. if the image given by reflection from 
water may be relied on. 

28--39. After another pause Corydon passes to another sub- 
ject. Elated, it would seem, with the idea of his wealth, 
musical skill and beauty, he now ventures to hope that Alexis 
will come and live with him. — Otantum, etc. O would you only, 
etc. Tibi is to be joined with libeat, and not, as Servius says, 
with sordida. — sordida rum, the rude country (i. e. the hills 
where he pastured his flocks), as opposed to the elegance of 
the town or possibly of the villa. — 29. casas. The casa or 
hut was formed of forked pillars which supported a sloping 
roof of sedge or straw ; its sides were woven with rods and 
daubed with clay. See Sen. Ep. 90. It differed little from 
the tugurium, but was perhaps of a slighter structure.— -figere 
cervos, shoot the deer. Cf. Geor. i. 308. Aen. v. 516. Servius 
notices and rejects another interpretation, namely, build the 
huts, the posts which supported them being named cervi, as 
being forked like antlers. — 30. compellere hybisco, to drive the 
goats to the hybiscus, on which they were to feed. The dat. 
is often thus used for the ace. with ad or in, as, it clamor 
caelo. Aen. v. 451. Cf. v. 5. viii. 101. It is thus Servius, who 
is generally followed, interprets it. La Cerda, Trapp and 
Martyn take hybisco in the abh, and suppose the shepherd to 
have a rod of it in his hand ; but that seems contrary to the 
nature of this plant. See Flora, s. v. Voss observes that com- 
pellere always signifies to drive to. Cf. Hor. C. i. 24, 18. — 31. 
canendo, in playing on the fistula, of which, he tells us in the 
next verse, Pan was the inventor. See the well-known mythe 
of Syrinx. Ov. Met. i. 689 seq. Mythology, p. 232. — 33. ovium 
magistros, i.q.pastores. Cf. iii. 101. Geor. ii. 529. — 34. Nee 
te, etc., nor should you disdain, think it beneath you. — trivisse 



V. 28. Uoifiawev 5' eQeXois avv e/iiv, lifxa kcu yd\' a/ieXyej', 

Kat Tvpbv TTa^ai, ra/xiffoj/ dpifieiav eveiaa. — Theoc. xi. 65. 

V. 30. TvpiaSev S' als ovtis eiriaTafiai w8e TLvKXdnrujv, 
Til/, 7-6 fiXov yXvKVfjLaXov, ctjxa Kijf.iavrbv aeLdwv 
TloWaKi vvktos diopi. — Id. xi. 38. 



22 BUCOLICS. 

labellum. Because, as is well known, in playing the fistula 
or Pandean pipes the under-lip is rubbed backwards and for- 
wards against the reeds. Trivisse is, we think, i. q. terere, for 
the Latin poets seem to have tried to imitate the varieties of 
the Greek inf. Cf. i. 17, viii. 69. Hor. Ep. ii; 1, 71 ; A.P. 325, 
326. Propert. i. 1 , 15 ; ii. 23, 78. Labellum, a dim., your tender 
little lip. — 35. Haec eadem, sc. carmina, which I play in imi- 
tation of Pan. Cf. v.23. The anteced. is contained in canendo, 
v. 31. — quid non faciebat, i.e. he laboured hard. Amyntas 
and Corydon seem to have been fellow-pupils in learning to 
play on the fistula from Damoetas. — 36. Est mihi, etc. I have 
a fistula which belonged to my master Damoetas, and which 
he gave me on his death-bed as being his ablest pupil, and 
which I will give you. CLv. 42. The avpiy^ or fistula was 
what we call the Pandean pipes. It was made of pipes of dif- 
ferent lengths, gradually diminishing. Their number was from 
seven to one-and-twenty. Count Stolberg says he heard at 
Terni, the ancient Interamna in Umbria, one of twenty-six 
pipes. Ovid (Met.xiii. 784), by a pleasing exaggeration, gives 
his Cyclops one of one hundred pipes. The ancients joined 
the pipes together with wax ; but wax alone, we should think, 
would not suffice to keep them together. — cicutis, hemlock- 
stalks. It is here used for calamis. — 38. secundum, sc. domi- 
num — 39. stultus, as thinking himself equal to Corydon. 

40-44. After another pause, Corydon, having thought on 
what other present he could make Alexis, mentions two young 
roes, which he had found one day, and which he was rearing 
on one of his ewes. — nee tuta valle. " Commendat a difficul- 
tate," says Servius, as if it had been hazardous for Corydon to 
venture into it. It would perhaps be better to understand it 
as unsafe for the roes, as being, when in it, exposed to their 
enemy the wolf. — 41. Capreoli, the kids of the caprea or wild 

V. 40 seg Tpepoj Se toi evdeica ve(3pit>s, 

Jldaas /jLavfofopcos, icai gkv/jiv^s Tecraapas dpKTw. 

Theoc. xi. 40. 
"^H fidv toi XevKav ciSv/xaTOKOv alya QvXdava), 
Tdv fie /ecu d Mepuviovos 'EpiOaicls d jieXavoxpus 
Aire? /ecu du>c£> ol, 67ret av jxoi evSia9pv7TTy. — Id. iii. 34. 



eclogue ii. 34-47. 23 

goat. roes. — sparsis, etc. Servius tells us, and Wunderlich 
says that the truth of the observation is confirmed by hunters 
at the present day, that young roes have white spots on their 
skins for the first six months, which then disappear. By etiam 
nunc Corydon then would intimate that they were not yet six 
months old. — 42. JBina die, etc. Voss understands by this 
that each of them consumed the milk of two ewes, but this is 
contrary to experience, for if their own mother could have 
reared two of them, one ewe might surely do the same. 
When we consider Virgil's practice with respect to the adj. 
(see on v. 26) we are inclined to think that bina refers to the 
two kids (ambo), or rather to the two times of feeding them, 
viz. morning and evening (bis). See Varro, R. R. ii. 2. — sic- 
cant, i. e. sugunt. Distenta siccant ubera, Hor. Epod. 2, 46. — 
libera. It is difficult to distinguish between uber and mamma. 
Gellius (xii. 1) says, Puer ubera mammarum insomnis lac- 
tantia quaerit, whence it might appear that uber was the nip- 
ple or teat, mamma the breast. But Cicero (N. D. ii. 51) says, 
Quae multiplices fetus procreant, ut sites, ut canes, his mam- 
marum data est multitudo, where mamma is the dug or teat. 
— 43. Thestylis. See v. 10. — abducere orat, i. e. orat ut liceat 
abducere. A very unusual construction. — 44. Etfaciet. And 
she will do so, it will come to that, though I do not wish it, 
in consequence of your contempt of me. — sordent, are dirty 
(i. e. of no value) in your eyes. Cunctane prae Campo et 
Tiberino ftumine sordent ? Hor. Ep. i. 1 1, 4. 

45-55. He now thinks on further presents, and he repre- 
sents the very Nymphs themselves, struck with Alexis' beauty, 
as bringing him baskets full of flowers. — 46. calathis. The 
calathus was a round basket, of the shape of the calyx or cup 
of the lily. " Calathus Graecum est, nam Latine quasillum di- 
citur," Servius. — Candida, fair, of a dazzling white. The idea 
of lustre is always included in this participial. — 47. Pallentes 
i. q. pallidas. This word is used of yellow and green as well as 
white. Saxum quoque palluit auro7~Ov. Met. xi. 100. Pal" 
lens Cytorus (sc. buxo), Val. Flac. v. 106. Gemma e viridi 
pollens, Plin. xxxvii. 8. Martyn justly observes, that the 
paleness of the swarthy inhabitants of the South is rather a 



yellow than a white, and he notices the derivation of the yel- 
low substance ochre (u>xP a ) from <^XP 0S ' ^ Ve ma y ad d tnat 
the Greeks had two compound adjectives, u>xp6\evKos and 

h>Xp6/je\as. — sum ma papavera, the poppy-tops or flowers 

48. jungit. While other Nymphs are bringing baskets full of 
lilies, one of them is twining a garland for him of various 
flowers : see next verse — 50. pingit, sets off or adorns, its 
yellow contrasting with the dark colour of the vaccinia. — 51. 
Ipse ego, etc. While the Nymphs are bringing you flowers, J 
will gather downy mala (see Flora v. malum) and other fruits 
for you. — 52. Amaryllis. See v. 14. This however would 
seem to be a different person of the same name. Cf. Theocr. 
iv. 38. — 53. Cerea, waxen, i. e. of a pale yellow colour. The 
a in pruna is not elided on account of the stop after it. — 
porno. See on i. 81. He does not mention what kind of fruit 
it was. It will be honoured by being selected on this occasion. 
— 54. proxima, placed next the bays. 

56-59. He now recollects himself, and awaking from his 
dream of bliss cries, " You are a mere clown, Corydon, Alexis 
cares not for your country-presents," etc. — 57. concedat, would 
yield. — Iollas. " Vel ditior amatorvel ejus dominus," Servius. 
The critics appear to be unanimous in adopting the latter 
sense, but they seem not to be aware that Corydon is a slave, 
and therefore could never dream of putting himself in com- 
petition with his master. We adopt the former without he- 
sitation. — 58. Hen, lieu, etc. Alas, what am I about? I am 
destroying myself with this foolish passion. As we say in the 
country, I have let the south wind get at the flowers and the 
wild boars at the springs. The Scirocco, or south-west wind, 
which blow r s in Italy, is most depressing to the spirits of man, 
and it destroys the buds and blossoms of the plants ; the boars, 
by wallowing in the springs, make them foul and muddy.-^- 
59. Perditus, sc. amove. 

60-68. His better thoughts now leave him and he returns 
to his passion. He is not to be despised because he passes his 
days in the woods. The gods (i. e. Apollo when serving Ad- 
metus) and Paris have dwelt in the woods. — 61. Dardanius 
Paris. This son of Priam, king of Troy, was exposed when 



eclogue ii. 52-66. 25 

a babe, and he was found and reared by herdsmen, among 
whom he spent his early days. He is probably mentioned 
here because he was chosen as judge of beauty among the 
goddesses Juno, Pallas and Venus. — Pallas, etc. The mention 
of Paris bringing this goddess to his mind, he says, " Let her 
frequent the towns which she founded, I will prefer the woods." 
Pallas- Athene was named izokibs and ttoKlov-^os, but chiefly 
in reference to her own city of Athens, In her mythology 
she is nowhere spoken of as the founder of towns and citadels. 
— 62. Ipsa. She herself, not I ; with a kind of contempt for 
them. — colat, i. q. incolat. It was a common practice of the 
Latin poets to use the simple in the sense of the compound 
verb, but never, we believe, the reverse. — nobis, me ; perhaps 
us, i. e. himself and Alexis. Everything, he goes on to say, 
has its favourite object, She likes the town, / the country, the 
lioness follows the wolf, the wolf the goat, and so forth. — 63. 
Torva leaena, the stern lioness. We should rather have ex- 
pected leo, but perhaps here, as in Geor. iv. 408, the metre 
was in fault. We may here observe, by the way, that whether 
the scene is in Italy or Sicily, there were no lions in either 
country. The poet had, however, the authority of Theocritus, 
i. 72. We are also not aware that the lion hunts the wolf. — 
65. Alexi. For the prosody see on v. 53. 

66-68. While Corydon is thus telling his woes to the 
woods, the fiovXvnjs, or time for unyoking the oxen from the 
plough in the evening, arrives. — Adspice, sc. o Corydon ! — 
aratra, etc. The plough, it would seem, instead of being left 
in the field at night, as is now the custom in Italy as well as 
in this country, was brought home every evening. Videre 
fessos vomerem inversum boves Collo frahentes languido, Hor, 
Epod. 2, 63. — suspensa, attached to. It suggests the idea of 
the lightness of the draught. The plough was not inverted, 
or turned over, it was merely inclined on one side, so that the 
point of the share should not touch the ground. Our plough- 
men do the same thing when moving their ploughs from one 

V. 63. 'A ai\ tov kvtktov, 6 Xvicos rav alya Slwkbi, 

'A yepavos rwporpov eyu) S' eni tIv fien&vtificu. — Theoc. x. 30. 

C 



26 BUCOLICS. 

field to another. — 67. diqjlieat, doubles, i. e. lengthens ; def. 
for indef. — 68. Me tamen, etc. The fervour of the sun is mi- 
tigated ; all nature is enjoying the cool of eve. I still am 
scorched as ever by the flame of love. 

69-73. He bethinks him again of his folly, and calls to 
mind the work he has to do, and which he has left un- 
done. — 70. Semiputata, etc. You have left a vine only half 
pruned on the elm, which itself requires to have its super- 
fluous foliage stript off. Servius says that there was a super- 
stitious belief that any one who in sacrificing used wine made 
from unpruned vines was seized with madness. There was 
also a law of Numa, Diis ex imputata vite ne libanto. Voss 
hence regards v. 70 as a rural proverb to express madness. 
We cannot agree with him. — 71. Quin. It is best to take this 
interrogatively, in its original sense qui ne — quorum indiget 
usus, which my business requires, such as baskets for holding 
cheese, etc., which were made of twigs or rushes — 72. detexere. 
This is more than the simple texere. It signifies to plait out, 
i. e. to finish. Quae inter decern annos nequisti unam togam 
detexere, Titin. ap. Non. i. 3. — 73. Alium Alexim. Another 
as fair as Alexis. 

Observations. 

Date — As we have observed in the Life of Virgil, the exact 
date of this eclogue cannot be fixed with certainty. All that 
can be asserted is that it is anterior in date to the fifth, and 
probably to the third. In assigning its composition to the 
year 709-1 1 we shall perhaps not be far from the true date. 

Subject — The subject is the hopeless love of a shepherd for 
a handsome youth, the favourite of his master. Virgil here 
imitates two beautiful Idylls of Theocritus, namely, the third, 

V. 68 Oepfibsyap epojs avrG) [j,6 KaraiOei. — Theoc. vii. 56. 

V. 69 seq. '"Q KvKX(o\p, KvicXaj-ip, irq, ras <ppevas eKTreTtoraaai ; 

AiV evQojv raXapcos re trXeicois, Kal QaXXbv apaaas 

Tats apveGGi ^epois, Tax<x icev ttoXv [jluXXov e^ois vovv. 

Tav TrapeoLGav afieXye' rt rov (peiyovra ^iw'fceis ; 

Ei'prjaeis FaXdreiav icws /cai teaXXiov' dXXav. — Id. xi. 72. 



ECLOGUE II. 27 

in which a slighted lover pours forth his amorous complaints 
before the cave of his mistress ; and the eleventh, in which 
the Cyclops Polyphemus, seated on a rock looking over the 
sea, solaces in song the love-torments inflicted on him by 
the disdain of the sea-nymph Galatea. 

There would not seem to be any reason for going beyond 
this, or supposing the poet to have any other object in view 
than that of a trial of skill with his master in bucolic poesy. 
An opinion however prevailed, as early at least as the second 
century of our sera, that this eclogue was founded in reality. 
Martial asserts (vii. 29, viii. 56) that Alexis was a slave be- 
longing to Maecenas, who acted as his cup-bearer, and whom 
he made a present of to our poet when he saw that he wished 
to possess him. On the other hand, Servius, Donatus and 
Apuleius ( Apol. p. 279) tell us that under the person of Alexis 
is concealed that of Alexander, the cup-bearer of Asinius 
Pollio, who gave him to the poet when he saw that he was 
taken with his beauty, as he attended at a dinner to which he 
had invited him. If Martial's account be true, we may ob- 
serve that it puts a complete end to the usual theory of the 
early date of this poem, for Virgil certainly was not known to 
Maecenas in 709-11. The other account might then seem 
to be devised by those who saw this difficulty. But Martial 
is not remarkable for accuracy, and Pollio is the name in 
Apuleius, who lived not long after Martial. According to an- 
other account, mentioned by Servius, Caesar himself was the 
Alexis of this eclogue ; but this hypothesis is too absurd to 
merit a confutation. The reader must judge for himself on 
this subject ; for our own part we entirely agree with those 
who, like Martyn, Heyne and Voss, see in this poem nothing 
more than an imitation of Theocritus, 

Characters. — Cory don, Alexis, and the other names which 
occur in this eclogue are plainly those of slaves. The use of 
the word dominus (v. 2) proves it in the case of Alexis, about 
whose condition in fact there never has been any doubt ; but 
that of the word pastor (v. 1) must have proved to a Roman 
reader with equal force that the same was the condition of 
Corydon ; whence in our opinion it follows, by natural con- 

c 2 



28 BUCOLICS. 

sequence, that Iollas (v. 57) was also a slave, and not the 
master of Alexis; for surely it would have been in the eyes of 
a Roman the very height of madness in a slave to think of 
vying with his master. The verses (19-21) in which Corydon 
dilates on his wealth may perhaps be explained on the prin- 
ciple noticed above (p. 14), but we rather think that they owe 
their origin, like the following vv. 25, 26, to the injudicious 
imitation of Theocritus, in the mouth of whose Cyclops they 
are beautifully appropriate and characteristic, while they are 
evidently unsuitable in that of a mere shepherd. With this 
exception, there is nothing in the eclogue which does not ac- 
cord with the station which we assign to Corydon. With re- 
spect to the mention of the vine in v. 70, it may be observed 
that slaves, though shepherds, had occasionally either gardens 
of their own, or the charge of those of their masters, like 
Tityrus in the first eclogue, or Lamon and others in the 
Daphnis and Chloe of Longus. In this romance Daphnis, 
when urging his suit to Dryas, the reputed father of Chloe, 
says, " Give me Chloe to wife. I know how to play well on the 
syrinx and prime a vine and set plants. I also know how to 
plough and to winnow corn ; and how I feed a flock, Chloe can 
tell." We will here observe that, while we quote this work of 
Longus as an authority, we find in it some things which seem 
to be in contradiction with the slave relations of antiquity. 
Such is the very circumstance mentioned here of Daphnis 
seeking in marriage Chloe, who was apparently the daughter 
of one who was himself the slave of a different master from 
that of Daphnis. We doubt if any other instance of such a 
practice could be produced. 

Scenery. — The scene of this eclogue is laid in Sicily, as is 
plain from v. 21. where the needless introduction of the word 
Sictdis, would seem to evince an anxiety on the part of the 
poet to convince the reader that it was only as fancy-piece, 
wrought in imitation of his master. 



29 



Eclogue III. — Palaemon. 



Argument. 



Two swains, the one keeping his father's goats, the other the 
sheep of a neighbour, meet on the common pasture. After 
some rustic sparrings of wit, they challenge each other to a 
trial at extemporaneous song. A swain who is at hand is 
chosen as judge, who, after the contest has been carried on 
for some time with equal spirit, declares his inability to decide 
between the rival singers. 

Notes. 

1-9. citjimi, whose. The pronoun cujus -a -utn, which was 
frequently used by Plautus and Terence, had gone nearly out 
of use in Virgil's time, and only remained in the dialect of the 
peasantry : see Life of Virgil. — 2. nuper, just now. — 3. In- 
felix, etc. The construction is o oves s. i. p. Cf. i. 75. Geor. 
iv. 168. He calls the sheep always unhappy, says Voss, be- 
cause their master, thinking only of his love, neglected them 
himself and then committed them to a dishonest keeper. — 
4. fovet, is courting. The original meaning of the verb foveo 
is to keep warm, hence to nourish, cherish, etc. Cf. Aen. i. 
718, iv. 686, viii. 387. — 5. alienus custos, a strange keeper. 
This does not say whether Damoetas was a hireling, or merely 
a neighbour who had taken charge of them. From v. 29 it 
might appear that the latter was the case. — bis mulget, etc. 
It is an exaggeration to say that he milked the ewes twice an 



V. 1. B. Ei7re fioi, £> Kopvdcov, rivos ai jSo'es; r} pa &i\wvca ; 
K. Ouk, dW A"iyioves' j36(JKev Se jioi aliTch e^oifcev. 

Theocr. iv. 1. 
V. 3. AeiXaiai yavrai, rbv (3idk6\ov liis fca/coV evpov. 

Id. iv. 13. 



30 BUCOLICS. 

hour. The meaning is that he was constantly milking them, 
so that they had little left to give their lambs in the evening. 
It was usual with dishonest shepherds to milk their master's 
cattle secretly and to sell the milk. — 6. sums, not sicccus, from 
sugo, is the juice of either plants or animals. Here it is the 
very substance as it were of the ewes. — subducitur. The idea 
of secrecy and theft is probably intended to be conveyed, 
but such is not the usual sense of this verb. — 7. Parches, etc. 
If I am a thief, as you say, I am at least a man, not an effemi- 
nate like you. I know who was with you the other day, and 
in what grotto sacred to the Nymphs, though these good- 
natured goddesnes only laughed 8. transversa, same as 

transverse, adj. for adv. Cf. Aen. v. 194. also Geor. iii. 149, 
500, iv. 122. Aen. vi. 288, etc. 

10, 11. — If they laughed, replies Menalcas, it was when 
they saw me injuring Micon's vines. He is speaking ironically, 
for he means that it was in reality Damoetas who had done it. 
— malafalce, with a secret, mischievous hook: Burmann says 
with a blunt, rusty hook, but the former is the more simple 
and natural sense. — arbustum, see i. 39. As the grown vines 
were united to the elms and poplars, Spohn thinks that by 
arbustum and vites novellas it is intended to intimate that he 
had cut both the old and the young vines of Micon. 

12-15. Or, rejoins Damoetas, when they saw you here at 
the old beeches, breaking Daphnis' bow and arrows ; for you 
were annoyed when you saw them given to him, and you had 
died if you had not done him some injury. The shepherds, 
being also hunters, had bows and arrows and hunting-spears, 
which they likewise required against the beasts of prey. — 
calamos, arrows, literally reeds, of which the arrows were made. 
Calami spicula Gnossi, Hor. C. i. 15, 17. — perverse, malig- 
nant, Liv. xxi. 33. 



V. 14. To KpoKvXos fioi eowne, to ttoocLXov, aviiz eOvae 

TaTs NujU^ats rdv alya' rv 8', w Kaice, Kai tok kraicev 
Bavicalvwv, Kai vvv jie ru \oia9ia yv/jLvbv eQrjKas. 

Theoc. v. 11. 



ECLOGUE III. 5-24. SI 

$6-20. Quid domini, etc. Wagner thus explains this diffi- 
cult line. What are the masters of such thievish slaves as 
you to do, whom I myself saw stealing from strangers ? how 
much more will they rob their own masters ? Voss and Spohn 
say that the sense is : When this thieving hireling dares to 
treat me in such a manner, what will not his master do in the 
affair of Neaera, to whom we both are suitors ? The former 
interpretation seems to us the more natural.— -fares. Slaves 
are so called in the comic poets, but never seriously. Turf, 
trium literarum homo (i. e.fur~), me vituperas ? Plaut, Aul. ii. 

4, 46. Ubi centurio 'st Sanga et manipulus furum ? Ter. Eun. 
iv. 9, 6. — 17- pessime. Horace uses this word to a slave, 

5. ii. 9, 22. — 1 8. Excipere insidiis. The verb excipere denotes 
a covert attack. Orestes Excipit incautum (Pyrrhum) patri- 
asque obtrimcat ad aras, Aen. iii. 332 — Lycisca. Dogs, as 
Pliny says (N. H. viii. 40), often bred with wolves, as 
they do with foxes, and hence perhaps this dog was so named. 
But Lycisca was probably a common name for a dog, owing, it 
may be, to that circumstance, or from the dog's likeness to a 
wolf. — 19. se proripit ille, is that fellow hurrying off. — 20. 
Tityre, Damon's servant.— coge, i. e. co-age drive your flock ail 
together.— carecta, i. e. co-rectum, a place full cf carex or sedge. 

21-24. Damoetas does not deny the taking of the goat, 
but says that he was only seizing his own property, as he had 
won it in a contest on the fistula or syrinx with Damon, who 
did not deny that it was fairly won, but said that he could not 
give it to him ; lest he should thereby publicly acknowledge 
himself overcome, says Servius, who is followed by Heyne, 
Voss and Spohn. But might not his reason have been the 
same as that given by Menalcas, v. 32, namely, fear of his 
father and mother? 

25-27. Cantando tu ilium, sc. vicisti, v. 21. You beat him, 
playing and singing ! Had you ever a syrinx, or did anything 



V. 25. Tap Troiav avpiyya; tv yap izoiza, StoXe 'Evfia.p-a, 
'Exxdcrw avpiyya ; ri 3' ov/ceri avv Kopvowvi 
'Ap/cet tol KaXd/ias aiiXbv TTOTcivvocev exovTi ; 

Theoc. v. 5. 



BUCOLICS. 



more than blow a corn-pipe at the cross-roads ? " And when 
they list their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel 
pipes of wretched straw," is Milton's imitation of this passage, 
Lycidas 123. — 26. triviis. The trivium, different from the 
quadrivium or cross-road (such, we believe, is not common 
in Italy), was the point of union of three roads, of which two 
branched off* from the third in the form of the letter Y ; the 
rpioSos of the Greeks. — indocte, untaught, who never had 
learned to play, answering perhaps to the Greek a/jovo-os. — 
27. Stridenti, " Pro stridula" says Spohn, " non quae nunc 
stridet sed quae omnino; participium hoc loco vim incluit 
adjectivi. Nam participia ablativum non in i mittunt sed in 
e. Vid. Bentl. ad Horat. Od. I. 2, SI ; 25, 17." See Excursus on 
ii. 10. — stipula. Aristotle (quoted by Voss) describes the corn- 
pipe as a hollow reed with a thin skin or membrane over the 
opening, pretty much the same as our children make for 
themselves of the green wheaten or oaten straws. — miserum 
carmen, some wretched ill-composed tune or attempt at a tune. 
Spohn will have it that it is a tune good in itself, but ruined 
by his mode of playing it, and therefore wretched or to be 
pitied. But this supposes that a tune could be played on 
the corn-pipe. — Disperdere : " est male perdere" says Spohn ; 
" ut dispeream i.q. male peream, Propert. ii. 33, 10, 'cluro per- 
dere verba sono.' " The meaning is, that, poor and trivial as 
is the tune you attempt to play, you make it still worse, you 
quite destroy it, by your utter want of skill even on the corn- 
pipe. The verse, by the repetition of the letters r and s, 
seems intended to be imitative. 

28-31. We are now approaching the real business of the 



. M. Xpj/ffceis uv ecndelv, xpyaCeis KaraOelvai ueOXov ; 
A. X.pyaca> tovt ecnSelv, xpyaooj icaraQelvai deOXov. 
M. 'AXXd tL 9r]<yevfiea9' o icev dfilv dpiuov eirj ; 
A. Moaxov eyw Otjgw' tv Se Oes y laopciTopa dfivov. 
M. Ov 9r)(TuJ ttokcl dfivov, 67re£ %a\e7ros 0' 6 Trart]p jxev 

X' a p,drr]p' rd ce fiuXa TtoQeo-rrepa irdvT dpiOfxevvTi. — 

Theoc. viii. 11, 
"A, dv exoiff epitpws, TrorapeX^erai es cvo neXXas. — Id. i. 26. 



eclogue in. 25-34. 33 

pastoral. Damoetas, stung by the sneers of Menalcas, chal- 
lenges him to a trial of skill in alternate responsive song ; each, 
in the usual manner, to stake something of value on the issue. 
— Vis ergo : " Visne et vin tu interrogat tantum, sed vis et 
vis tu excitat :" Spohn, approved of by Wagner and Jahn. — 
vicissim, by turns, in amcebseic song — 29. vitidam, a heifer or 
young cow ; as puer is used for a youth, virgo for a young 
married woman, Ec. vi. 47- Heifers even in this country 
often (though it is a bad practice, as it stops their growth) 
have calves before they are two years old. 30. Bis venit ad 
mulctram, she can be milked twice a day, beside suckling her 
twin calves. It is not usual for cows to have twins, but Pliny 
(N. H. viii. 45) says it sometimes happened, and this we 
can confirm of our own knowledge, for we knew a cow that 
always had twins. It is remarkable that the twins of a cow 
are, we believe, always females, and, from a defect in their 
physical structure, barren : Free Martins is the name given 
to them in England. Virgil was probably led to this state- 
ment by his imitation of Theocritus, who however was speak- 
ing of goats, not cows. — 31. pignore stake. 

32-43. I dare not wager any part of my flock, says Me- 
nalcas, on account of my father and my stepmother ; but I 
will lay what is much more valuable. There is a difficulty 
here which has escaped the critics. Damoetas, ^*ho is repre- 
sented as a hireling and who is keeping another's flock of 
sheep, wagers a heifer, which heifer, as we may see, was there 
present. We content ourselves with pointing out this diffi- 
culty, of which we can give no solution, save that which 
explains so many other difficulties in the Bucolics, namely 
Virgil's slavish imitation, of his Greek original. — grege, flock 
of sheep or goats ; in this place the latter : see v. 34. — tecum, 
with you, i. e. against you. — 33. Est mihi, etc. Voss, Wagner, 
Jahn and Forbiger place a comma, instead of, like Heyne, a 
semicolon, after pater, as the adj. injusta refers to the father 
as well as the mother. — injusta, like iniqua, signifies unkind, 
severe, as aequus and Justus often mean kind or favourable. — 
34. Bisque die : they are so rigorous that they count his flock 
not only when he brings it home in the evening, but also when 
c5 



34 BUCOLICS. 

he is driving it out in the morning ; and, not content with 
this one or other of them (alter), counts the kids separately. 
It was therefore utterly impossible for him to escape discovery 
if he should lose a kid or a goat. — 35. However, continues he, 
though I cannot risk any of my father's property, I will stake, 
since you are mad enough to contend with me (insanire libet 
quoniam tibi), what you yourself will confess to be of far 
greater value than your heifer, namely a pair of new beechen 
cups. — 36. pocula. Voss observes (referring to Hor. Sat. i. 
6, 117, and Cic. Yerr. iv. 14) that the cups of the ancients 
were usually in pairs, made after the same fashion; so we 
ourselves used to have pairs of silver cups. — 37. caelatum 
opus, a carved work, not engraven, for the figures on works of 
this kind were in relief. — divini Alcimedontis. This divine 
(i. e. excellent) artist was probably no real personage, the name 
being merely employed as a euphonious one. — 38. Lenta, etc. 
These two lines are to be thus rendered : On which the 
flexible vine put over, i. e. laid on, by the easy-moving graver 
covers the bunches diffused from the pale ivy. It would 
hence seem that ivy-leaves and clusters went all round the 
upper part of the cups, and that vines rose probably under 
each handle (v. 45), and united their leaves above with those 
of the ivy, forming thus two fields, as we call them, on 
the sides of,the cups, to receive the figures about to be men- 
tioned. — torno. The tornus is properly the chisel of the lathe, 
but, as Ruaeus observes, it was used to express any graving 
tool. — 39. pallenie. For the hedera pallens, see the Flora, s.v. 
— iO. In medio, in the fields, the spaces inclosed by the vine 
and ivy. — duo signa, figures (probably, as Voss says, half- 
lengths) of two celebrated astronomers, one on each side of 
the cup. — Conon. He lived in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes, 
king of Egypt, the hair of whose queen Berenice he placed 



V. 3G. Kai ftaQv KiGavfiiov, KeKkvcp.evov aSei icapip, 
'A/Atpves, veorevxes, en yXvtpcivoio ttotocfSov' 
Tw Trept jiev x 61 ^ 7 ) papverai v^oQl kiggos, 
Kiccros e\ixpvG([> KeKOVKTfievos' a Se tear' avrbv 
Kapirip e\i£ elXelrat djaWofieva KpoicoevTi. — Theoc. i. 25 



eclogue in. 34-44. 35 

among the stars, by naming a constellation after it. — quisfuit 
alter? The poet makes his shepherd, in the spirit of rural 
ignorance, unable to recollect the name of the other sage 
represented on his cups. As he has not told the name of 
this astronomer, the critics, both ancient and modern, of 
course suggest a variety of names : some say Hesiod, others 
Aratus, others Archimedes, others Anaximander. It was most 
probably, as Voss asserts, after Servius, Eudoxus, whose Phae- 
nomena, as appears from Columella (ix. 14), was much fol- 
lowed by the Italian farmers. — 41. Descripsit radio, marked 
out by his scientific rod, i. e. compiled a table. The ancient 
mathematicians used for their calculations a table (abacus), 
over which was smoothly strewn green glass-dust, which was 
too heavy to be stirred by the air, on which they drew their 
figures with a small rod (radius). — tGtum orbem, the whole 
circular vault of heaven. — gentibus, for the peoples. — 42. 
tempora, sc. anni, that is to say the seasons for reaping and 
ploughing, designated by the rising and setting of certain 
constellations. — curvus, i. q. curvatus, bent over the plough. 
The ploughman, says Varro (see Geopon. ii. 2), should be 
tall, that he may be able to press heavily on the handle of 
the plough and so keep the share well in the ground. Ara- 
tor nisi incurvus prcevaricatur, Plin. N. H. xviii. 19. The 
ancient plough was very light and with only one handle. — 
43. JVecdum, etc. They are quite new, I have never used 
them, but keep them safe laid by ; they are what the Greeks 
would call i;eLfXJ]Xia. 

44-48. As to that, replies Damoetas, / too have a pair of 
cups made by the same artist, which are superior to yours in 
design ; for, instead of simple figures like yours, they exhibit 
Orpheus playing on his lyre, and the trees of the forest moving 
to his strains. — motti acantho, the vypos aKavdos of Theocritus. 
The adj. denotes the nature of the plant : see Flora. — ansas : 

V. 43. OvSe ri ira ttoti %etAos ejibv 9lyev, dW ert iceirai 
" A\pavTOv. — Theoc. i. 59. 

V. 45. Tlavru 8' ap.<pl ceras Trepnreirrarai. i/ypos dicavOos. 

Id. i. 55. 



36 BUCOLICS. 

these cups also had handles, round which the acanthus went, 
as also, it would appear, round the edge of the cups. Damoetas, 
who seems somewhat impatient, mentions the subject of only- 
one of the fields of his cups — 47. Necdum, etc. He repeats 
Menalcas' words, perhaps, as Voss says, with somewhat of 
mockery. — 48. Si ad vitulam, etc. Your cups, you may see, 
are not to be compared in value with my heifer ! the stake 
would therefore not be equal. It may be asked, why he did 
not offer to lay his cups against those of Menalcas ; to which 
it might perhaps be replied, that one pair of cups was enough 
for one person, and that he did not care to win what he did not 
want. 

49-51. Menalcas, nettled by the real or supposed insinua- 
tion in the last words of Damoetas, replies, You shall not get 
off; I will run all risks, and stake anything you like, even a 
part of my father's flock (v. 109) — 50. Aicdiat haec tantum, 
with a pause- He was going on to say, some fit or proper 
judge, when he sees a swain named Palaemon approaching. 
His words therefore run thus : Let there only hear (i. e. judge) 
these songs,. — as well as any other Palaemon who is coming up. 
— ecce. See on i. 67. — 51. posthac. This word belongs to la- 
cessas, and not to efficiam, as in Heyne's text. It should not 
therefore have a comma after it. Lacessere voce is probably 
' challenge to sing.' 

52-54. Come on, then, if you have any power of song ; I 
will not balk you, nor do I fear any judge. All I ask of you, 
neighbour Palaemon, is, that you will give the deepest atten- 
tion, as the affair is no trifle. — 53. Nee quenquam fugio. Cf. 
Liv. ix. 1. Voss, followed by Wagner, interprets, I fly neither 
you nor any one else. — 54. res est non parva, either the mat- 
ter is very important, namely, the determining which of us is 
the better singer, or the stake, the heifer, is of no small value. 

V. 50. A. aXka n's djj,f.ie 

Tts Kpivel ; aW cp9ol 77-00' 6 /3w/e6Xos a>5e AvKwiras. 
K. Obtev eyoi ttjvui iroTi^evojxai' aXKa rbv civSpa 
At \ys rbv cpvTOjiov fioxjrpiiffoiJies, os rds epei/cas 
Ti]va$ rds vrapd tiv 4vXo%t<7^eraf evrl de Mopaojv. 

Theoc. v. 61. 



ECLOGUE III. 47-60. 37 

— reponas, the conditional for the imperative in the usual 
manner. 

55-59. We may suppose that the whole party sought out 
a shady grassy spot, where they might sit and sing at their 
ease. When they were settled there, Palaemon desired them 
to begin, making a brief but pleasing description of the place 
and the season. Though the rule seems to have been that the 
challenged should have the first word, he desires Damoetas to 
begin, perhaps because he himself had been selected as judge 
by Menalcas. — 59. Allernis, in amcebaeic or responsive strains, 
which, he says, the Muses love, perhaps because, being extem- 
porary, they exhibit more readiness of the poetic faculty than 
more formal compositions. See Observations. — dicetis, for di- 
cite, the fat. for the imper. — amant alterna Camenae. Movo-aW 
& a'i aetrW ajioifiojievai 6tv\ ica\rj. Horn. II. i. 604. The Ca- 
menae were the Italian deities answering to the Greek Muses. 
See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 532. 

60-63. After a prelude on his fistula, during which he 
composes the verses with which he is to commence, Damoetas 
praises Jupiter and makes him the patron of his song. — Jovis 
omnia plena. This is the philosophic doctrine of the Stoics, 
answering to the Jewish and Christian one of the omnipresence 
of the Deity. It was perhaps rather too refined a notion to be 
put in the mouth of a shepherd of those days ; but Virgil, as 
we may frequently observe, did not attend to these matters. 
— Ille colii terras. Cold, says Servius, is amat, as Aen. i. 15, 

V. 60. 'Ek Aios cipxibfieaOa, rbv oijCe —or' dvSpes ew/iev 
'ApprjroV fieffral 8e Aios Tracai [lev ayviai, 
TLaoai 8' avQpwirwv ayopai, jtteoT;) Ce dd\ao~o~a, 
Kai Xi/iever Trdvry Se Aios icexpii/jLeOa Trdvrer 
Toy yap kciI yevos eoj.iev. Arat. Phaen. 1. 

'E/c Atos apx^fi-eaOa, teal es Aia Xip/ere MoTaai. 

Theoc. xvii. 1. 

K. Tnt Mwcai /xe (piXevvn ttoXv ir\eov ?] rbv aowbv 
Acc(pviv' eyw S' aureus ^tpftpojs Ovo irpav ttok' eQvGa, 

A. Kni yap e/.i' 'QttoWuiv (J>i\eei jxeya' Kai KaXbv avraj 
ILpibv eyw fiocicw. to. Se Kapvea Kai 8r/ ecpepTrei. 

Id. v. 80. 



38 BUCOLICS. 

Vnamposthabita coluisse Samo. Hence Damoetas infers that, 
as Jupiter loves the country, the songs of swains must be agree- 
able to him. Menalcas, after an air on his pipe, replies, If 
Jupiter regards your song, I too enjoy the favour of a god. 
Phoebus Apollo, the god of poets, loves me as well as others 
(cf). I always keep laurels and hyacinths, the plants that are 
sacred to him. — 62. sua, "i. e. propria, quae conveniunt," 
Spohn. Perhaps his gifts to the earth, as it was he first gave 
existence to these plants. For the changes of Daphne and 
Hyacinthus, see Mythology. — 63. lauri. The i is not elided, 
as there is a stop after it. — suave rubens, sweetly blushing. 

64—67. Damoetas now changes his theme, and begins to 
sing in the character of the lover of a slightly coquetish rustic 
damsel. — Malo me petit, flings an apple or some such solid fruit 
at me. The ancients used malum as a generic term, inclusive of 
all fruits containing pips, as apples, pears, quinces, oranges, 
lemons, etc. The mala were sacred to Venus. — 65. adsalices, 
i. q. ad salicetum. But still she takes care that I shall see her 
before she hides herself, in order that I may follow and find her. 
But the youth to whom I am attached (meus ignis), replies 
Menalcas, has none of these artifices. He comes of himself to 
me, so that my dogs know him as well as they do Delia her- 
self, a maiden who has long been in the habit of visiting me. 
Cf. vii. 40. Perhaps however those are right who take Delia in 
its proper sense as an epithet of Diana. Though Tibullus calls 
his mistress Delia, a shepherd would hardly venture to do so. 

68-70. The subject is now the presents made to the loved 
ones. I have decided on a gift or offering to my goddess 
Venus, i. e. Galatea, says Damoetas, for I have myself marked 
a nest of the wood-pigeons, from which I will take the young 
in due season. — 69. aeriae, not sky-coloured, as Servius ex- 

V. 64. K. B&XXei iced fiaXoiai top aliroXov a KXeaplcrra, 

Tas alyas irapeXevvra, tzal adv ti 7ro7r7rvXidadei. 
A. Kt)jU6 yap 6 Jiparidas tov "KOi\ikva Xetos V7rav7wv 
'EKjxaivei' Xnrapa Se irap' av%ei>a creier' eBeipa. 

Theoc. v. 88. 
V. 68. K»)ya> (lev doHTuJ rq, irapQevoj avriica (tidaaav, 

'Etc tus aptcevOaj KaOeXuv' rrjvei yap efiaSei. Id. v. 96. 



eclogue in. 62-75. 39 

plains it, but building in lofty trees (see on i. 58.), whence he 
would seem to insinuate a proof of the strength of his love, 
which would induce him to encounter the danger of climbing 
so high.— palumbes : see i. 57. — congessere, sc. nidum. I, 
replies Menalcas, have already done all I could ; I have sent 
Amyntas ten golden apples which I gathered in the wood, and 
tomorrow I will send him ten more. — 70. Quod potui, the cri- 
tics think, refers to the labour he had in climbing the tree to 
get them ; but none of the trees bearing mala are ever very 
high. — aurea mala. By these Heyne and Voss understand 
quinces, the mala Cydonia ; Martyn, pomegranates, mala Pu- 
nica. These last however, as Spohn observes, are never of a 
golden hue. It seems much simpler, with this last critic, to 
suppose them to be common wild apples tinged yellow by the 
heat of the sun. 

72-75. Damoetas now celebrates the kind language of the 
fair one to him, which he holds to be worthy of the ears of 
the gods themselves, and which he therefore wishes the winds 
to waft to them. So Servius justly understood the passage ; 
but Castelvetro, Ruaeus and others, who are followed by Heyne 
and Voss, see in it a reference to the falsehood of woman, and 
a prayer that the gods will make her perform some part of her 
promises. Menalcas declares himself to be less fortunate, for 
when they were hunting together, Amyntas left him to watch 
the toils they had pitched, while he himself followed the game. 
— 74. Quid prodest, what avails it to me that you do not re- 
ject me, i. e. that you love me, when I have no opportunity of 
conversing with you ? There is no contradiction between this 
and v. 66, because each set of amcebseic verses is independent 
of the others. — 75. servo, i. q. observo. The Xivonrrjs ?} 6 ra 
efiTviiTTovTa Oi]pla airo<jKOTrov[xevos was a necessary member of 
a hunting-party. See Pollux and Hesychius. The complaint 
would therefore seem to be, that this part was selected on pur- 
pose for him. 



70. 'RviSe rot deica [ici\a (pepw Ti]vw6e KaQeTKov, 
T Q jjl' eiceXev KctOeXeiv rv' icai avpwv aXka toi otVw. 

Theoc. iii. 10. 



40 BUCOLICS. 

76-79. Another subject and another damsel now appear on 
the scene. Damoetas addresses an imaginary person named 
Iollas, and asks him to send Phyllis (Iollas' mistress, as it would 
seem) to him, as he was going to celebrate his birthday, telling 
him he will invite himself to the ensuing feastof the Ambarvalia. 
— ?ialalis, sc. dies. Servius however says, " Sane natalis apud 
majores plenum nomen erat,posteritas natalisdies dicere coepit." 
This is not quite correct, for we find natalis dies in Tibullus, iv. 
9, 3. Nouns of this kind are in reality adjectives, as every one 
knows nowadays. We may here observe, that elsewhere in 
Tibullus (ii.2. iv. 5, 19.) the substantive understood is deus, and 
Natalis is equivalent to Genius. Servius (who is followed 
by Voss) further remarks, that Damoetas asks Iollas to send 
him Phyllis, who was their common mistress (amicam com- 
munem), as it was only on their birthday festival that " licebat 
voluptatibus operam dare;" for in all others, such as that to 
which he invites Iollas himself, chastity was to be observed. 
This appears to us a little strained, and we cannot recollect any 
other authority for this distinction. — 77. Cum faciam. The 
"LaXvafado, like the Greek pe'(w (pe£cu vwep Acivawv, II. i. 444.), 
was used to express the act of sacrificing, sacra perhaps being 
understood. — vitula. This is the reading of some of the best 
MSS. ; others read vitulam ; and though it is equally correct 
to use the ace. as the abl. after facere in this sense (see Dra- 
kenborch on Liv. i. 45, x. 42.), yet euphony alone, as Voss saw, 
decides for the latter, for the ictus metricus falls on the last 
syllable of both faciam and vitula. — pro frit gibus, sc, at the 
Ambarvalia, a festival of Ceres celebrated by the country- 
folk previous to harvest. See Geor. i. 345. Menalcas replies, 
apparently in the character of Iollas : I cannot part with Phyl- 
lis, whom I love above all others, and she too loves me, as she 
testified by her grief when one time I was leaving her. Heyne 
and Voss think that Menalcas himself is the favoured lover, 
and that Phyllis quits Iollas for him. But Wagner justly asks, 
if she was quitting Iollas for him, why did she weep at Me- 
nalcas' departure ? and why, if Iollas was so handsome as she 
says, did she leave him ? and why did she take so tender an 
adieu of him, and employ what was a usual term of affection ? 



ECLOGUE III. 76-82. 41 

We therefore hold our interpretation to be the true one. — 
78. me discedere, a Hellenism, i.q. me discedente. — 79- longum, 
etc. All the commentators, except H. Stephens, Wagner and 
Forbiger, follow Servius in taking longum adverbially and join- 
ing it to vale. The sense of the passage thus taken is, ' Fare- 
well for a long time, beautiful Iollas !' In the other way it is, 
'she uttered a long Farewell, farewell, my beautiful Iollas.' 
This last interpretation we greatly prefer. The employment 
of longum here, Wagner observes, corresponds with that in 
longos ciere jletus and such-like phrases, and with snpremum 
vale. Longum should therefore begin with a small, Formose 
with a capital, letter. — vale, vale. The e of the second vale, 
which is not elided, is short on account of the following 
vowel. 

80-83. In the person of another shepherd, as it would seem, 
Damoetas declares that the anger of his mistress Amaryllis 
was as dreadful to him as the wolf to the flocks, the rain to 
the ripened corn, and the winds to the trees. — Triste,a dismal 
thing. The Romans seem to have borrowed this form from 
the Greeks, with whom the noun understood (n pay pa, ^pr^ia) 
is in the neuter gender, whereas the Latin res is feminine, and 
negotium is a word of a different signification. — stabidis, i. e. 
flocks, the container for the contained. The stabida here 
seem to correspond with the ovilia of Geor. iii. 537, and to 
be the pens in which the sheep and goats were shut up at 
night for protection, and into which, as they were not covered 
over, the wolves used sometimes to leap. — imbres. Pliny (xviii. 
4-4) observes that rains did great injury to the ripe corn. Of 
this we have abundant experience in our own country. — 81. 
Arboribus venti, namely when they are in blossom or in fruit. 
As Damoetas had compared the anger of a maiden with things 
of a destructive nature, Menalcas on the contrary compares 
the kindness of a youth with nutritive objects. — 82. Dulce, 
like triste, v. 80. — satis. Saturn was anything that was sown 

V. 80. Aevdpeai fxev x ei ^ ov tyofiepov kclkov, vdacn S' ai/Xfios, 
"Opvioiv v v<nr\ay%, ayporepois Be Xiva' 
'AvBpl Be rrapQeviKus cnraXas noBos. — Theoc. viii. 57. 



42 BUCOLICS. 

or planted, corn or trees. — depidsis, weaned, see on i. 21. — 
lenta, flexible : see on i. 4. This is here merely an epitheton 
ornans, as it was only the leaves that were used as fodder.— -feto 
pecori, the goats that had yeaned. See on i. 49. 

84-87. The poet, in his anxiety to pay court to his patron, 
loses sight here of the simplicity belonging to bucolic poetry ; 
for, in spite of the ingenious arguments of Voss, shepherds 
could know but little of the critical or poetical powers of 
Asinius Pollio. For Pollio, and his connexion with our poet, 
see the Life of Virgil and that of Pollio. — nostram Musam, 
my Muse, i. e. my poetry, though it is only unaspiring bu- 
colic. — S5. Pierides, the Muses, as born in Pieria. See My- 
thology, p. 186. — pascite, feed, cause to fatten the heifer 
which I intend to offer in sacrifice for his welfare. — lectori 
vestro, for your reader, i. e. Pollio, who reads my verses which 
are dictated by you. Menalcas enlarges on the praises of 
Damoetas, for he adds-: Not only is Pollio an admirer of poetry, 
he is an excellent jioet himself. — 86. nova, new, that is ex- 
cellent, exhibiting all the charms of novelty ; not as Voss un- 
derstands it, containing new subjects. The carmina here 
meant are Pollio's tragedies. — taiirum. As Damoetas declares 
he will offer a heifer, Menalcas promises a young bull who is 
just beginning to grow pugnacious. Cf. Hor. C. iii. 13, 3, seq. 

88-91. Damoetas continues the praises of Pollio, but his 
meaning is somewhat obscure. It seems to be : May he. obtain 
the same degree of poetic inspiration. — quo, to where, i. e. 
to the same height of poetic excellence, or to the same height 
of fortune. — gaudet, sc. pervenisse. — 89. Mella, etc., may his 
inspiration be such that in imagination he may see the golden 
age renewed, when the trees dropped honey and the common 
briars bore the fragrant products of the East. See the fol- 
lowing Eclogue. There may be an allusion to some chorus 
in Pollio's tragedies, perhaps in one founded on the Bacchae 
of Euripides, where see v. 142 seq. Menalcas replies by a 
contrary case. As his rival had sung the felicity of admiring 
a good poet, he notes the infelicity of admiring a bad one ; 
namely, that he who does so will, by a sort of retribution, be 
led to admire one as bad if not worse, and will thus, if no 



ECLOGUE III. 84-100. 43 

more, spend his time and labour in vain. For Bavius and 
Maevius, see the Life of Virgil. We need not observe how 
anti-bucolic the introduction of such a subject is. — Ql.jungat 
vulpes, sc. ad arandum, a proverbial expression like the fol- 
lowing, midgeat hircos. The philosopher Demonax, seeing two 
would-be philosophers arguing one day most absurdly, said to 
the bystanders, " Don't you think, my friends, that one of 
these is milking a he-goat and the other holding the pail? " 
Lucian, Vita Demon. 28. 

92-95. Damoetas now resumes the pastoral strain ; he calls, 
as it were, to warn those who are gathering flowers and straw- 
berries of a snake that is lying in the grass. Perturbation and 
anxiety are expressed in the position of the words of the second 
line, and in its being wholly composed of dactyls. — Frigidus 
unguis, the xbvxpos orpis of Theocritus xv. 58. The snake seems i 
to be termed cold, as being such to the touch. Thus we say, \ 
'As cold as a frog.' Menalcas, in the character of a shepherd, 
calls out to his sheep not to go too near the edge of a stream. — 
nonbenecreditur, as Horace says (Sat. ii.4, 21), «/Ms(fungis) 
male creditur. The impersonal corresponds to the Italian verb 
with si, as si crede, and the French on, as on se Jie. — 95. 
ipse aries, etc. You see the ram himself, who is your guide, 
has tumbled in and is now drying his fleece. 

96-99. In the character of a goatherd Damoetas calls to 
his underling to drive the she-goats away from the river. — 
reice, i. q. rejice, drive them back, sc. by flinging his crook at 
them. Cf. Horn. II. xxiii. 84-5. Theocr. iv. 44. Menalcas, 
who all along seems to confine himself more to one subject 
than his rival, cries out to the shepherds to get the sheep into 
the shade, or else all the milk will be lost. — Cogite, sc. in um- 
bram, Geor. iii. 331. — praeceperit, sc. by drying up the dugs. 

100-103. Damoetas, as a neat-herd, cries out that his bull 

V. 94. Hirr diro ras kot'ivw, ral /xqicdfies' iode vefxecQe, 

'Qs ro Karavres tovto yetoXotpov, a'i re fivpZicai. — Theoc. v. 100. 

V. 96. Alyes efial Qapueire Kepovx'iSes' avpiov vjX]ie 

Udaas eyw Xoucrw "ZvfiapiTiSos evSoOi Kpdvas. — Id. v. 145. 

V. 100. Ae7rros fidv %a5 ravpos b 7ri>ppt%os. — Id. iv. 20. 



44 BUCOLICS. 

is grown thin in the midst of food, and ascribes it to love, from 
which he suffers himself. Menalcas, as a shepherd, replies, 
My lambs too have fallen away to nothing, and as it cannot 
be love, they are so young, it must be fascination of an evil 
eye. — His, sc. agnis. — neque is, as Voss observes, i. q. ne qui- 
dem. — vix ossibus kaerent, as we say ; they are mere skin and 
bone : their skins hang loose, hardly sticking to their bones. 
103. Nescio quis oculus, i.q. aliqiris ocuhcs. There should not 
be a comma after quis, as in Heyne's edition. — fascinat. The 
ancients had a great superstition about the power of what was 
esteemed the evil eye, and this superstition still prevails in 
the East, in Greece and Italy, and elsewhere. 

104-107. Damoetas concludes the contest by making a rid- 
dle, of which he does not however seem to require a solution. 
— Apollo, as being the god of soothsaying. — 105. Tres pateat 
caeli, etc. Servius and Philargyrius tell us that Asconius 
Pedianus and Cornificius both said that they had it from 
Virgil's own lips, that his intention in this place was to give 
the critics a puzzle (se crucem Jixisse), and that he meant a 
well-known Mantuan named Caelius, who squandered away 
his whole property, with the exception of as much land as 
would serve him for a sepulchre. As Voss remarks, this was 
perhaps a common joke in Mantua at the time. There is no 
reason whatever to suspect the genuineness of this tradition ; 
but both ancient and modern critics, not content with it, have 
devised various other solutions. Some said it was a well at 
Syene, over which the sun was vertical when in the tropic ; 
others, that it was any deep well ; others, that it was a cavern 
in Sicily ; while some, still more profound, said it was the 
Homeric shield of Achilles. One modern makes it the grotto 
of Posilipo near Naples, and another the opening in the roof 
of the Pantheon, though that temple was not built at the time. 
Menalcas gives as his riddle a well-known poetic fiction, the 
origin of flowers from the blood of princes.— regvm, sc. of 
Hyacinthus and Ajax, both the sons of kings, and therefore 

V. 102. Tijvas }iev Sr] toi tus Troprws avra XeXenrrai 

Tdxrrea. fii) TrpuJ/cas airit^erai, uxnrep 6 reTTit; ; — Theoc. iv. 15. 



ECLOGUE III. 103-111. 45 

princes, as Ariadne is called a queen, regina. JEn. vi. 28. — 
inscripti nomina. On the hyacinthus some saw an at, the 
first letters of A'ius ; others a Y, the first letter of 'Yauvdos. 
For the form inscripti nomina, see Excursus III. — et Phyllida, 
etc., in the person, it would seem, of Iollas, above, vv. 76, 79. 
108-111. The contest being concluded by the two riddles, 
Palaemon declares himself unable to decide between the two 
rival singers. — 109. etvitula. See vv. 29, 48. — ethic, sc. digitus 
poculis. A bold ellipsis ! But perhaps Menalcas had had the 
courage to stake some part of his flock, or possibly another 
heifer. — et quisquis amoves, etc. This passage has been a 
complete crux to the critics. Heyne rejects vv. 109, 110, as 
interpolations, but this is not a safe proceeding with Virgil, 
who is the most free from interpolation of all the Latin poets. 
Voss reads : At quisquis amores aut metuat didcis aut experi- 
etur amaros ! and renders it : But let every one shun secret 
love, or he will find it bitter in the end. Wagner reads : Et 
quisquis amores Ha u t metuet, dulcis aut experietur amaros : 
i. e. And every one will experience either sweet or bitter love. 
" Haud metuit amores," says he, " qui eos non fugit, non sper- 
nit." Perhaps, after all, Jahn is right in saying that Servius 
gives the true sense of the passage : " ' Et tu et hie digni estis 
vitula et quicunque similis vestri est : ' scilicet Damoetas in 
superioribus amoris amaritudinem conquestus est (vv. 64, 68, 
72, 76). Menalcas amores sprevit, adeoque puellam amatam 
Damoetae cedere voluit (vv. 66, 70, 74, 7S, 106). Haec igitur 
respiciens Palaemon pro simplici et quisque sic, uti vos, amores 
canet, divisim dicit et quisquis aut amores dulces, sicut Damoetas, 
metuet aid, sicut Menalcas, amaros experietur." — 1 1 1 . Claudite, 
etc. Palaemon calls out to some workmen, whom he directs 
to close the sluices, as the meadows were now sufficiently ir- 
rigated. " Aut certe allegorice hoc dicit," says Servius. " Jam 
cantare desinite satiati enim audiendo sumus ; " an interpre- 
tation not altogether to be despised. 



46 



Observations. 



Date. — This eclogue was probably composed after the 
second, as the poet mentions it after that eclogue. See v. 86, 
S7. It was certainly composed after he had become known 
to Pollio. 

Subject. — The subject is a contest in amcebaeic song be- 
tween two swains, after some previous sparring. He imitates, 
as in the second eclogue, some of the Idylls of Theocritus, 
particularly the fourth and fifth. 

In the second eclogue Virgil gave an example of moncedic 
extempore verse. He here gives one of the amcebseic kind. 
The principle of these amcebseic contests was, that one of the 
parties, generally he who Mas challenged, should commence in 
any measure and with any number of verses he chose, and the 
other was bound to follow him in the same measure and with 
the same number of verses on the same or a similar subject. 
The first then, still keeping to the same measure and number 
of verses, either continued the same subject or changed to 
another, and his rival was bound to follow him; and they thus 
went on till they either stopped of themselves or were desired 
to stop by the person whom they had selected as judge. 

It is not easy to say whether Theocritus, or the mimogra- 
phers whom he followed, have given us in these compositions a 
transcript from nature, and that such rural contests were 
common among the shepherds of Sicily at that time. We be- 
lieve that we may assert with confidence that no such prac- 
tice prevails at the present day in either Greece or Italy ; but 
Riedesel, a German traveller quoted by Voss (on v. 58), tells 
us that the Sicilian shepherds still, as in the days of Theocri- 
tus, contend with one another in improvised song, and that 
the prize is a scrip or a staff. A learned Italian friend, who 
w T as born and spent the greater part of his life in the kingdom 
of Naples, and who is himself a poet of no mean order, told 
us, when we consulted him on the subject, that he had often 
heard that the shepherds in Sicily, and even in Tuscany, did 
thus contend in extemporary strains, but that he had never 
witnessed any of these contests. He once, he says, was pre- 



ECLOGUE III. 47 

sent on the Mole at Naples, at a contest in verse between two 
of the popular poets. They accompanied their strains with 
the guitar, and gave them out for improvised, but in his opi- 
nion they had previously arranged them. We are also told *, 
on the authority of an English traveller named Cleghorn, that 
these extemporary poetic contests might be Avitnessed among 
the peasantry of the island of Minorca. We must however 
confess that this evidence does not quite satisfy us. If the 
practice was so common, we should probably have heard more 
about it ; and it is very remarkable that nothing of this kind 
occurs in the writings of Meli, the modern bucolic poet of Si- 
cily, who, if such contests were of frequent occurrence among 
the shepherds of his native isle, could hardly have failed to 
give a specimen of them in his eclogues and idylls. 

The custom of playing and singing together, as given by 
Theocritus and Virgil, may be illustrated by the following 
usage of the present day. In the cities of Rome and Naples, 
and other towns, may be seen, from the end of November till 
Christmas, persons who go about playing and singing before 
the images of the Virgin and Child.-]- These are peasants from 
the Apennines, who from motives of piety or profit make these 
annual descents. They always go in pairs : one plays on the 
zampogna or bagpipes, which resembles the Highland pipes, 
and is like them filled with the mouth, but does not scream, 
being of a graver tone ; the other plays on the cennamella, a 
rustic clarionet of moderate compass. They 'stop before an 
image in the street, or sometimes in a house, and after a pre- 
lude on both instruments, the player on the cennamella stops 
and sings a devout stanza to the Virgin, accompanied by the 
zampogna. He then resumes his instrument, and the two 
perform the prelude to the next stanza, and so on. But their 
verses are not extemporary ; they are all popular ones, which 
the singer has learned by heart. Setting aside the zampogna, 



* Sulzer, Allgem. Theorie der Schonen Kunste, ii. 58 ; quoted by Harles 
on Theocr. v. 80. 

_ f Miss Taylor, in her very elegant " Letters from Italy" (i. 218), no- 
tices this practice. 



48 BUCOLICS. 

we have here a parallel to the manner in which the shepherds 
in Theocritus and Virgil play and sing. 

Characters. — The Lacon and Cometas of Theocritus' fifth 
idyll, which our poet here chiefly follows, are, as we are ex- 
pressly informed, both slaves. We may therefore safely as- 
sume such to be the condition of the Damoetas and Menalcas 
of Virgil. The former, like the latter, stake members of their 
flocks on the issue of the contest, and this seems to be in 
unison with the usages of the ancients. In Longus' pastoral 
Lamon, the reputed father of Daphnis, is only a slave, and yet 
Daphnis appears to have unlimited power of making presents 
and offering sacrifices out of the flock of goats of which he 
has the charge. It seems only to have been required of the 
goatherd (and the same was of course the case with the shep- 
herd), that his flock should increase at a reasonable rate. In 
making shepherds and goatherds lay calves for a wager, the 
poet we think errs against propriety. He was probably led 
into this error by keeping too close to his original, for we have 
a neatherd only in Theocritus' third, and a neatherd and shep- 
herd in his eighth idyll. It may be here remarked that we 
meet with no neatherds in the Bucolics. The simple reason 
perhaps is, that armentarucs, the Latin term answering to the 
Greek jjovkoXos, could only be used in the nominative in verse, 
as in Geor. iii. 344, and was besides too long and ponderous 
a word. 

Scenery. — The scene is laid in a region where there are 
beech-trees (v. 12), vineyards (10), marshes (20), streams - 
and meads (111). It is probably ideal. We must observe, 
that the various rural objects mentioned in the amcebaeic 
verses give no aid in determining the scene of the contest ; for 
these verses are to be regarded as the spontaneous creations 
of the imagination of the contending swains. It may however 
be supposed that they took their images from the scenery 
with which they were surrounded. 



49 



Eclogue IV.— Pollio. 



Argument. 
In this^clogue the poet assumes a higher strain and sings 
the return of the Golden Age, which he makes to take place 
in his own days. See the Observations. 

Notes. 

1-3. Sicelides Musae, i.e. pastoral or bucolic Muses, namely 
those who inspired the Sicilian Theocritus, or as Voss thinks 
the pastoral poets who preceded him in that island. Sicelides 
is a Greek form from ScceX/a, the Greek name answering to 
the Latin Sicilia. — pernio majora, sc. carmina, somewhat greater 
than those I have hitherto made.— 2. Non omnes, etc. Pas- 
toral poetry is not to the taste of every one.— arbusta, simply 
trees : see on i. 40. Voss as usual would restrict this word to 
the trees that supported the vines.— my ricae. The Greek my- 
rica is the Latin tamarix, the tamarisk— 3. Si canimus, etc. 
if we do sing the woods (if we keep to pastoral poetry), let it 
be in such elevated strains as may be worthy of a consul's ear. 
Voss makes an over-refined distinction between the arbusta 
and myricae and the silvas, making the former signify the 
humble, the latter the elevated style of pastoral poetry. He 
therefore adopts the reading of sunt for sint in v. 3.— Co?isule, 
sc. Pollio, see v. 12. 

4-7. Ultima, etc. The last age of the world (i. e. the 
Iron) sung in the verses of the Cumaean Sibyl has come and 
is drawing to its conclusion, and a new circuit of the ages 
of the world is about to commence. For the Sibyls and 
the Ages of the World see Excursus IV.-5. Magnus sae- 
clorum ordo, i. e. the Magnus Annus. Saeclum answers to 
the yeros of Hesiod ; Lucretius often uses it in this sense. 
—integro. The second syllable is long, as in juvat integros 
accedere fontes, Lucr. i. 926 ; integris opibus, Hor. S. ii. 2 



50 BUCOLICS. 

113. — 6. Jam redit, etc. The Golden Age is now returning, 
when Saturn reigned, and the Virgin Justice abode among 
men. — 7. Jam nova, etc. He has here perhaps in view the 
Platonic notion of the descent of souls from heaven to animate 
bodies on earth. In the Hesiodic narrative it is simply said 
that the gods made each successive generation. — demittiliir, 
like redit, in the present tense to denote the immediate future. 

8-10. nascenti puero, sc. the son of Pollio. — quo, with 
whom or in whom, that is, at whose birth. — primum, first, be- 
cause, as we shall see, the renewed Golden Age was to come 
on gradually. — 9. gens aurea, the golden race of men, the 
ypvaeov yeros of Hesiod. — mundo. The Latin mundus, like 
our equivalent term world, sometimes signified the complex 
of earth, air and sky, (compare Milton, P. L. ii. 1052.) 
sometimes merely the earth, as here. See Hor. C. iii. 3, 53 : 
Ov. Trist. iv. 4, 83 ; Lucan, i. 160. — 10. Lucina. The Roman 
Juno Lucina, who presided over birth, was a totally distinct 
deity from the moon-goddess Diana, for the Italian religion does 
not seem to have held a connexion between the moon and 
birth. As the Greeks had united Artemis and Ilithyia, or 
rather perhaps as they were originally identical, the Latin 
poets gave to their Diana (i. e. Artemis) the office of Lucina. 
Apollo was the brother of Artemis, that is of Diana, and he 
was at this time held to be the same as the Sun. There is 
considerable difficulty about this reign of Apollo. As regnat 
is in the present tense, it should, like the preceding nascitur 
and redit, denote the immediate future, and refer to the Golden 
Age about to commence. But Saturn, according to Hesiod, 
was then to reign. Nigidius (De Diis), as quoted by Servius, 
says, " Quidam deos et eorum genera temporibus et aetatibus 
(sc.assignant), inter quos et Orpheus, primum regnum Saturni, 
deinde Jovis, turn Neptuni, inde Plutonis ; nonnulli etiam, ut 
magi, aiunt Apollinis fore regnum." Servius then adds, that 
the Sibyl declared the last age to be that of the Sun. He also 
supposes an allusion to Augustus, whose likeness to and re- 
gard for Apollo is known, but which last he does not appear 
to have shown at the time when this eclogue was written. 

11-14. Decus hoc aevi, i. q. hoc decorum (praeclarum) 



ECLOGUE IV. 6-17. 51 

aevum, sc. this Golden Age. It is wrong to suppose, with 
some of the ancients, that it is the puer or Augustus that is 
meant— inibit, sc. cursum, the future of ineo. i. q. ingredior. 
Burmann observes, that there is no instance of ineo taken 
thus absolutely, but Heyne justly refers to the participle 
iniens thus taken, as in ineunte anno, mense. — -12. magni 
menses, illustrious (as we use the word great), as belonging to 
the Golden Age. Voss understands by it long months, that is, 
the ten parts into which the Sibyl divided the Magnus Annus. 
A remarkable proof of how ill the ancients sometimes com- 
prehended their own writers is, that, as we learn from Servius? 
Asconius, the contemporary of Virgil, understood by these 
great months July and August, called after Caesar and Au- 
gustus, though this latter title was not known till some years 
later ; and at all events, as Spohn observes, Pollio did not 
enter on his consulate till October, and went out of office in 
December. — 13. Te, sc. Pollio. — sceleris nostri, sc. of the civil 
wars, which were regarded asascehis; Cut dabit partes scelus 
expiandi Jupiter ! says Horace when speaking of them, C. L 
2, 29, and again (Epod. 6, 1) he cries to the Romans, Quo 
quo scelesti ruitis? — 14. Irrita, i. e. in-rata, abolished. — per- 
petua formidine, continued fear of the recurrence of similar 
evils. — terras, i. q. orbis terrarum. 

15-17. Hie, sc. puer, v. 8., the son of Pollio. — deum vitam 
accipiet, i. e. he will become a partaker of the blessings of the 
Golden Age, when, as Hesiod expresses it, men wore Oeol c 
e^itiov anr]lea dv/xuv e-^oires. — divisque, etc. He here seems to 
allude to the opinion that the gods then mingled familiarly 
with men, at least with the higher class of them, the heroes. — 

16. ipse videbitur, that is, he will himself be one of them. — 

17. Pacatumque reget orbem. As consul or chief magistrate of 
the reformed and virtuous Roman republic, he will rule the 
civilised world, now reduced to peace. — patriis virtutibus, with 
the noble qualities which he had derived from his father ; a 
high compliment to Pollio ! We must not here omit to notice 
that Jahn maintains that Me refers to Caesar, and the patriis 
to the Dictator his adoptive father. For this employment of 
ille he refers to i. 7, 42, 44, and to Ovid, Her. ii. 20, and iv- 

d2 



52 BUCOLICS. 

14, but none of these passages bear him out. Critics do not 
seem sufficiently to recollect that at the time when this eclogue 
was written Caesar was not of the importance to which he after- 
wards attained, and that the triumvirs had engaged to restore 
the republic at the end of their term of five years, which was 
not yet expired. 

18-25. The poet now proceeds to describe the gradual ad- 
vance of the Golden Age, according to the childhood, youth 
and manhood of the young Pollio. — At. This word merely 
denotes transition to another subject, and not opposition, as 
Jahn maintains in support of his interpretation of ille in the 
preceding paragraph. — munuscula, small gifts of flowers and 
such like suited to a child. — nullo cidtu in both Hesiod and 
Ovid; it is a character of the Golden Age that plants grow 
without culture. — 19. errantes passim. These words are to 
be taken together, as characteristic of the ivy. — 20. ridenti, 
joyous, fair, flowering, like the yeXctr of the Greeks. — 21. 
Ipsae, etc. Another mark of the Golden Age, the goats will 
require no keeper (perhaps, as Voss says, because the wolves 
were grown harmless), but will come home of themselves 
(ipsae) to be milked. — 22. nee magnos, etc. The meaning 
perhaps is, that the same would be the case with the kine, 
which would no longer have reason to fear the lions. We 
may here remind the reader that the poet, when describing 
these blessings, had the whole earth in his view, and not 
merely Italy, in which it is well known there never were any 
lions. — 23. Ipsa tibi blandos, etc. Flowers will spring up 
everywhere in such profusion, that your very cradle will be 
filled with them. Blandos, grateful, from their colour and 
smell. It would perhaps have been better if the poet had put 
this verse, or one of similar import, before the two preceding 
verses. — 24. Occidet, etc. Poisonous reptiles and plants will 
cease to exist. Voss reads this passage thus : Occidet et ser- 
pens, et fallax herba veneni, Occidet ! comparing it with the 
Cedes coemptis saltibus et domo, Villaque, Jlavus quam Tiberis 
lavit : Cedes, of Horace ; C. ii. 3, 17. It however "seems more 
simple to let herba govern the second occidet.— fallax, decei- 
ving, sc. those that were culling simples, as Nee miseros fallunt 



ECLOGUE IV. 17-31. 53 

aconita legentes, Geor. ii. 152. — herba veneni, i. q. herba vene- 
nata, a Graecism. — 25. vulgo, i. e. passim. — amomum. The 
amomum will no longer be confined to the East, it will grow 
everywhere. 

26-30. When the new-born child shall have arrived at a 
sufficient age to study the deeds of heroes, the condition of 
external nature will make a further step in its progress to- 
ward perfect bliss ; corn, wine and honey will be produced 
without the care of man, and in the greatest abundance. — 
heroum laudes, the praiseworthy deeds of the ancient heroes, 
the K-Aen avctpuv iipojwv of Homer, II. xxii. 520.—; -facta parentis, 
sc. Pollionis.—legere, to read, in Homer and the other poets, 
and in the historians. — 27. quae sit virtus. Thence learn what 
civil and military virtues are, and be able to acquire them.. — 
28. Molli arista. It is doubted by the critics whether the 
poet takes arista in its proper sense as the beard of the wheat 
or for the whole ear. The latter seems to us the true sense, 
as he speaks of its turning yellow (Jlavescet), Molli again is 
by some rendered smooth, by others tender. There is another 
and the original sense of this word as the contraction of mo- 
bilis (see on Geor. ii. 389.), which would give a beautiful 
and very poetic image, namely that of the yellow corn waving 
in the gentle breeze of the perpetual spring. — 29. rubens uva, 
the ruddy (i. e. ripe) bunch of grapes. — Incultis sentibus, 
from the wild bushes, which instead of blackberries would 
bear grapes. — 30. roscida mella. It was the opinion of the 
ancients, that honey was a dew which fell from the sky on 
the leaves and flowers of plants, whence it was collected by 
the bees. Elsewhere (Geor. iv. 1.) he calls it aerii mellis 
caelestia dona. Honey, he says, would now be so abundant 
on the trees, that the oaks, as it were, would sweat it forth, 
and the men of the Golden Age would obtain it without the 
intervention of the bees or any necessity of attending to these 
little animals. 

31-36. The blessings of the Golden Age will not, however, 
come all at once ; in this stage of the transition there will still 
be war, commerce and navigation. — veteris fraudis, of the evils 
which had grown up in the preceding ages ; for fraus is some- 



54 BUCOLICS. 

times i. q. scelus. Bepubl. violanda fraudem ineapiabilem con- 
cipere, Cic. Tusc. i. 30. Fraudem capitalem admittcre, Id. Rab. 
Perd. 9. It may perhaps be taken in its original sense with 
a reference to the theft of Prometheus.— vestigia. There 
would however be only traces of them, namely, some of the 
arts of which they had caused the invention. — 32. Quae, sc. 
vestigia. — Thetin. The sea-nymph, the mother of Achilles, 

put in the usual manner for the sea tentare ratibus (sc. 

jubeant), to try (navigate) with ships, a periphrasis for navi- 
gare. Hatis is properly a raft, but it is used for a ship in 
general. — cingere, etc., fortify towns. — 33. jubeant, sc. homines. 
— telluri infindere sulcos, to plough the ground. Voss adopts 
the reading of one Roman MS. tcllurem Jindere sidco, and 
Wakefield that of a Vatican, sulcis. — 34. Alter erit, etc. He 
now, as it were, proceeds to particulars. There will be an- 
other Argonautic expedition, that is, voyages in search of pro- 
fit and full of enterprise, similar to that renowned voyage will 
still be undertaken. For this voyage, in which Tiphys was 
the pilot, see Mythology, p. 4-68 seq. — 35. erunt altera bella, 
etc. There will still be wars, and Achilles will be again sent 
to Troy. We would not reject the supposition that there is 
an allusion here to the Parthians, the most formidable enemies 
of Rome, and that the meaning is, that, as the son of Thetis 
was sent to the East to war against Troy, so a Roman Achilles 
would be sent by the restored republic to the East to over- 
throw the Parthian power. 

37—45. When the youth shall have attained to manhood 
the Golden Age will come in completely. Commerce and 
agriculture (much more war) will cease, and all blessings will 
be equally diffused. — 38. vector (from veho) : " tam is qui ve- 
hitur quam qui vehit dicitur." Servius. Its most usual sig- 
nification is the former, i. e. the merchant or passenger. Etiam 
summi gubernatores in magnis tempestatibus a vectoribus 
■admoneri solent, Cic. Phil. vii. 9. — 39. mutabit merces, because 
trade was originally carried on chiefly by barter. Hie mu- 
tat merces surgente a sole ad eum quo Vespertina tepet 
regio, Hor. S. i. 4, 29. — Omnis feret, etc. The reason why 
trade Avould cease, there would be no need of an exchange of 



ECLOGUE IV. 32-47. 55 

productions. — 40. Non rastros, etc. Agriculture also would 
cease, as everything would grow spontaneously. For the ras- 
trum and the falx, see Terms of Husbandry,,?.?;.— 41 . Robustus, 
etc. The vigorous ploughman will now take the yoke off his 
oxen, that is, he will cease to work them. Forbiger, following 
two MSS., reads robustis tauris. Cf. Geor. ii. 237- He and 
Wagner also take tauris as a dat. instead of an abl. — 42. Nee 
varios, etc. The mechanical arts, especially that of the dyer, 
will go out of use. Wool will no longer learn to assume 
(jnentiri) various hues, for the fleeces on the backs of the 
sheep will become purple, yellow and scarlet of themselves. — 
suave, sweetly, i. e. beautifully, agreeably. Cf. iii. 63. This 
transference of terms of one sense to another is common to 
most languages. Dante, ex. gr. says, Dolce color a" oriental 
zqffiro, Purg. i. st. 5., and we ourselves talk of siueet colours 
and sweet, sounds. Cf. ii. 49, 55. — 44. Murice. The murex was 
one of those sea-snails found on the coasts of the Mediter- 
ranean, which in a white vein held a fluid which gave a blue 
or purple die to wool and other substances. Plin. ix. 26. — ■ 
luto, woad. — sandyx, vermilion or scarlet. Pliny (xxxv. 6.) 
describes the sandyx as a mineral substance. Voss tries in 
vain, after Servius, to show that it was a plant. Like murex 
and latum, it in reality only denotes the colour. They are 
quite mistaken who fancy the poet to mean that it was by 
feeding on particular plants the sheep of the Golden Age 
would change their hue. The ordinary laws of nature were 
then to be all changed. 

46-47. Talia saecla, etc. This may be, ' Such happy times 
roll off! said the Parcae to their spindles,' as Heyne renders 
it, apparently taking talia saecla as a voc. ; but it seems 
simpler with La Cerda and others, and more in accordance 
with the passage of Catullus, which he had in view, to in- 
terpret it, " O fusi, currite per talia saecla V'—fusi, spindles, 
from fundo. — 47. slabili numine, in the fixed, unchangeable 
power. — -fatorwn, of the divine decrees. — Parcae. This name 
corresponds with the Greek MoTpat. See Mythology, p. 194. Its 
origin is unknown. There do not seem to have been in the Ita- 
lian religion any deities answering to the Moerae of the Greeks. 



56 BUCOLICS. 

48-52. He continues in the same strain to address the son 
of Pollio. The language is, Ave may observe, greatly inverted, 
o being separated from cara suboles, and aderit jam tempus 
introduced parenthetically. — magnos honores, the great ho- 
nours destined for thee. Voss says they are the offices of 
importance in the Roman republic, leading up to the consu- 
late — 49. deum suboles. It is difficult to understand why the 
son of Pollio should be so styled. Poraponius said that the 
Pollios, led by the similitude of their name to his, derived 
their lineage from Apollo, and possibly the poet may allude 
to this. Voss says it is because he would be the first of the 
aurea gens sent down from heaven. — deum. Wagner says 
that the plural was thus employed to signify some one of, as 
Extemos optafe duces, etc. Aen. viii. 503. — Jovis incrementum, 
ciorpe<p))s, the nurseling or favourite of Jupiter. — 50. Adspice, 
etc. The whole world is moved and thrilled with joy at the 
coming events. Adspice, like en ! ecce ! (Cf. ii. 66.) calls the 
attention of the hearer or reader to what the poet beholds in 
his fit of inspiration. — mundum is either the world, or more 
probably here the solid arched heaven which contains the sky, 
earth and water. See the Mythic Cosmology in the Mythology. 
— convexo pondere, with its arched solidity. The Latins fre- 
quently used convexus to denote concavity. — nutantem. Nuto 
is used of quiet, gentle motion, as nutantem platanum, Catull. 
lxiv. 291 ; nutat sidus, Calpurn. i. 79. — caelum profundum, 
the depths of the sky, the " azure deep of air " of Gray. This 
verse is repeated, Geor. iv. 222. — 52. Adspice ! Again the poet 
calls our attention. — omnia, sc. mundus, terra, etc. 

53-59. The poet, who, we must recollect, had now reached 
his thirtieth year, wishes that he may live long enough to ce- 
lebrate the exploits of the young Pollio in his years of man- 
hood. — longae pars ultima vitae, that he may reach the last part 
of a long life, i. e. that he may live long enough. — 54. Spi- 
ritus, etc., and that his poetic spirit may not be exhausted by 
that time, but he may retain enough of it to be able to cele- 
brate the great events that would occur. Maneat is to be re- 
peated with spiritus. — 55. Non me, etc. Then neither Or- 
pheus nor LinuSj the two great poets of the heroic age, would 



eclogue iv. 48-63. 57 

excel me in song, even though his mother, the muse Calliope, 
should aid the former, and his father, Apollo, the god of song, 
the latter. — 53. Pan etiam, etc. Nay, Pan himself, the god 
of Arcadia, if he were to contend with me in the bucolic 
strains which I should employ, would acknowledge himself 
conquered ; the Arcadians, his votaries, being themselves the 
judges. 

60-63. In conclusion, the poet returns to the child and 
calls on him to recognise his mother, in token of his fitness to 
belong to the Golden Age. — risu cognoscere matrem. There 
is great difference here between the critics ; some, as Julius 
Sabinus, Ruaeus, Marty n, Heyne and Voss, saying that the 
infant recognises the mother by her smiling ; others, as Ser- 
vius, Jahn, Wagner and Forbiger, by smiling on her himself. 
The latter seems to be more true to nature and to agree better 
with the context. Wagner thus gives the sense : " Incipe ma- 
trem risu agnoscere. Digna est enim quam risu tuo exhi- 
lares, quippe cui decern menses longa tulerint fastidia. In- 
cipe ergo tuo risu parentes ad mutuant arrisionem provocare. 
Magnum hoc nam cui non arrisere parentes ;" etc. and cognos- 
cere, he says, is used for what a prose writer would express 
by agnoscere, and cognoscere risu is i. q. risu agnoscere. — 61. 
decern menses, the ten lunar months of gestation, parturition 
taking place in the tenth month.— -fastidia, the qualms of preg- 
nant women. — 62. Incipe, repeated like the adspice of v. 52. — 
risere parentes, smiled on in return; for a child whom his pa- 
rents regarded with dislike was not destined to honour and 
happiness. — 63. Nee deus, etc. The ancients saw in this a 
reference to the god Hephaestos or Vulcan, whom his mother 
rejected, his father flung out of heaven, and Minerva fled from 
when he became her wooer. Ruaeus thought the allusion was 
to Hercules, who was admitted to the table of the gods (see 
Hor. C. iv. 8, 30) and married to the goddess Hebe. But 
surely he never smiled on his mother or she on him. Servius 
and Philargyrius tell us that when a male infant of noble fa- 
mily was born, a couch was placed in the atrium of the house 
for Juno, and a table for Hercules. It may be to this that 
the poet alludes, but perhaps it is more simple to understand 

d5 



58 euco"lics. 

it of the society of the gods which the child was to enjoy (v. 
15), and which is expressed by admission to the table of Ju- 
piter and marriage with a goddess. 

Observations. 

Date. — There is little dispute about the date of this Eclogue, 
for the critics are unanimous in referring it to the latter part 
of the year 712-14, when peace had been made between 
Caesar and Antonius. 

Subject. — The conclusion of the peace of Brundisium, A.u. 
712-14-, in which Pollio was one of the most active agents 
(see Life of Pollio, and Hist, of Rome, p. 468), which pro- 
mised future tranquillity to the Roman world, caused general 
joy and satisfaction. Virgil, grateful to Pollio for his past 
favours, and to Caesar and Maecenas for the restoration of 
his lands, resolved to celebrate this happy event in poetry, 
and suitably to the kind in which alone he had hitherto exer- 
cised himself, to manage his subject so as that he might be 
able to adorn it chiefly with images drawn from the country. 
The verses ascribed to the prophetic women named Sibyls, and 
which were preserved with so much care at Rome, arc said 
*to have spoken of a renewal of the golden and following ages 
through which the world had passed ; the astrologers and phi- 
losophers had also their mundane year, to which they assigned 
different periods (some of immense length), at the end of 
which the constellations would return to the position which 
they had occupied at its commencement, and the whole course 
of nature and series of events which had taken place in it be 
repeated, as they all depended on the stars. Further, the au- 
gural books of the Tuscans said that there were successive 
secies or ages assigned to states and empires, the commence- 
ment of each of which was marked by some celestial appear- 
ance; and Augustus himself related, in the memoirs which he 
wrote of his own life, that the aruspex Vulcatius declared 
openly in the Forum that the bright star which appeared after 
Caesar's death, and which he himself would have to be re- 
garded as the soul of his adoptive father, was in reality a comet, 
which signified the end of the ninth and the commencement of 



ECLOGUE IV. 59 

the tenth secle, adding that, as he had thus made known the 
secrets of the gods against their will, he would die forthwith, 
and while he was yet speaking he dropped down dead. From 
all this we think we may collect, that a belief in a great change 
for the better in the condition of the world was at that time 
sufficiently prevalent to authorise a poet to foretell the return 
of the Golden Age, or rather of a golden race of men on earth. 
This was the plan which Virgil adopted, and, commencing 
with the birth of a child, he traces the gradual melioration 
of nature and of man as the heaven-sent child advances to 
maturity. 

Characters. — The only character in the poem is this my- 
sterious child, concerning whom there seems to have been 
little or no difference of opinion among the ancients ; while 
the moderns, affecting superior penetration in this as in so 
many other cases, have gone into a variety of hypotheses. 

Servius tells us that Asconius Pedianus had left it on re- 
cord, that he had heard Asinius Gallus, the son of Asinius 
Pollio, often say, that he himself was the person in whose ho- 
nour this eclogue had been composed. In the commentary 
of Servius, another son of Pollio, named Saloninus, from the 
town of Salona in Dalmatia, which his father had just taken, 
and who died in his infancy, is named as the subject of this 
eclogue. Voss supposes that Gallus and Saloninus were the 
same person, who, during the consulate of his father, was born 
at Eavenna in Cisalpine Gaul, and hence named Gallus ; and 
then (as Lipsius, he says, also thinks), when his father in the 
following year conquered Dalmatia, was named, from its prin- 
cipal town, Saloninus ; as w r as afterwards done in the case of 
Germanicus and Britannicus. (See Hist. Rom. Empire, pp. 
16, 82.) Whether this be correct or not is a matter of little 
importance : we have the undoubted fact, that from the time 
of the poet dowm (for Asconius was a contemporary), the an- 
cients never thought of any other child than a son of Asinius 
Pollio for this eclogue. 

When we speak of the ancients we mean only the heathens ; 
for the Christians, at least some of them, saw in this eclogue 
a very different child, it is well known how early the maxim 



60 BUCOLICS. 

of the end sanctioning the means began to prevail in the 
ancient Church, and hence how it abounded in forged wri- 
tings; some under the names of the Apostles, others of 
those who were regarded as prophets by the heathen. Among 
these last, none were more famous than the Sibyls ; and hence, 
even in the second century, verses prophetic of our Lord 
were forged in the name of a Sibyl, which imposed on that 
good but weak and credulous man, Justin Martyr. They 
are quoted also by the emperor Constantine in a Concio 
ad Clerum, which is preserved by Eusebius ; he certainly with 
much candour acknowledges that many regarded them as the 
forgery of some over-zealous Christian, but he asserts his own 
belief in their genuineness, and adds that they had been trans- 
lated into Latin by Cicero, who was dead long before Christ 
was born. The emperor, in the course of his harangue, further 
gives it as his opinion that our poet in the whole of this eclogue 
speaks of the Messiah, and he quotes a Greek version of it. St. 
Augustine, in his commentary on the Komans, says that he 
should not lightly have believed that the Sibyl had prophesied 
of Christ, if Virgil, " antequam diceret ea de innovatione 
saeculi, quae in Domini nostri Jesu Christi regnum satis con- 
cinere et convenire videantur," had not prefixed this verse, — 
Ultima Cumaei jam venit carminis aetas. 
In his City of God he speaks of the same prophecy as the 
emperor, and gives a Latin translation of it which he had met 
with. Lactantius also has faith in the Sibylline oracles, and re- 
gards this eclogue as founded on them and as prophetic of the 
Saviour. The emperor in his speech has luckily preserved this 
famous oracle, as St. Augustine has the translation. Both are in 
acrostics, and a more palpable forgery is nowhere to be found : 
but even had they been lost, the very circumstance mentioned 
by the emperor, of some having regarded them as being forged, 
would be enough to assure us that they were so ; for the early 
Christians in general were devoid of critical skill, and we may 
be assured that the sceptics were the men of greatest knowledge 
and sagacity. It may seem strange, yet it is a fact, that the Pro- 
testant divines of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
(for example, Cudworth, Whiston and Chandler,) saw in this 



ECLOGUE IV. 61 

eclogue a prophecy of the Messiah. Martyn too asserts that 
" the child was without doubt our blessed Saviour ;" and 
he quotes the Latin version of the Sibylline oracle as a 
true record. Ill would it fare with our holy religion if 
it had to rest for its authority in any degree on such proofs 
as this ! The solution probably of the whole matter is simply 
this. The prophet Isaiah and the poet Virgil, when describing 
an approaching state of bliss, of necessity, as we may say, from 
the nature of the human mind, used similar images taken 
from the physical world. This of course was at once per- 
ceived ; and the true cause not being within the philosophy of 
that time, the resemblance was accounted for by supposing 
the poet to have taken his imagery from the Sibyl, who, like 
the prophet, was inspired. As for the translation of the sibyl- 
line oracle by Cicero, we may search in vain for it in that 
orator's extant writings. In fact his testimony is all the other 
way, for (Div. ii. 54.) he holds the circumstance of an oracle 
being in acrostics as a decisive proof of its being a forgery. 

The Jesuits seem on this point to have been less credu- 
lous than the Protestants. Ruaeus, one of the most rational 
and judicious among them, is decidedly in favour of Asinius 
Gallus ; the Journal de Trevoux says it was Drusus the son 
of Livia, of whom she was pregnant when Caesar married her ; 
and Catrou maintains that it was Marcellus, the son of Cae- 
sar's sister Octavia by her first husband. 

The second hypothesis is easily disposed of. The eclogue 
was written while Pollio was consul, and Caesar did not marry 
Livia till the year 714-16. The third offers just as little 
difficulty: Marcellus died in 729-31, in the twentieth year 
of his age, according to the contemporary poet Properties 
(iii. 18), and he must therefore have been born before 712- 
14. Martyn and Voss discuss this point at considerable 
length, but we deem the fact just noticed to be quite de- 
cisive. 

There still remains a hypothesis started by Boulacre in the 
Bibliotheque Francaise, vol. xxviii. p. 243, and adopted by 
Nauze in the Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, vol. xxxi, 
and by S. Henley, an English writer of the last century. This 



62 



BUCOLICS. 



is, that it is a son of Caesar by Scribonia, whom he had just 
married, and who bore him Julia, his only child. No doubt 
this hypothesis is not, like the other two, at variance with 
chronology ; but when we consider the circumstances of the 
time, and Pollio's being of the party of Antonius, we shall see 
little cause to adopt it, and thus the ancient hypothesis re- 
mains the only one that is tenable. 

Scenery. As this eclogue speaks of the whole earth, it can 
have no particular scenery. 



Eclogue V. — Daphxis. 



Argument. 



Two shepherds, Menalcas and Mopsus, having met on the 
mountain-pastures, the former proposes that they should pass 
some of their leisure in singing. They enter a shady cavern, 
and Mopsus there sings the death of a shepherd named Daph- 
nis, whose praises and apotheosis are then sung by Menalcas. 
In conclusion they bestow presents on each other. 

Notes. 
1 3. boni, inflare, etc., as the Greeks would say, ayadol 
avpl'(eiv, aeiceir, or ourselves good at playing, etc. Virgil, as 
Jahn shows, frequently thus unites an adjective and an infini- 
tive mood. Cf. Ec. yii. 5. x. 32 . — convenimus, sc. in unum lo- 
cum. — 2. calamos inflare, to play on the syrinx. — dicere, i. q. 
canere. Dianam tenerae dicite virgines, Hor. C. i. 21. — 3. con- 
sidimus, sc. ad canendum. It does not seem to be the mean- 
ing of the poet, that Mopsus was to play on his syrinx while 
Menalcas was singing, but that each was in the usual manner 
to play and sing, for Mopsus is the first who sings, v. 20. 

V. 2. "Afifbix) rvpiffSev cecarjfievu), dfupoj deioev. — Theocr. viii. 4. 



ECLOGUE V. 1-10. 63 

4-7. Tu major, sc. natu, like maximus, Aen. vii. 532. — 5. 
motantibus, sc. arbores or eas. This is the reading of Servius 
and of most of the MSS. ; others, which are followed by 
Heyne, read mutantibus. The meaning is, the shadows on 
the chequered ground are unsteady, in consequence of the 
western breezes moving the trees. From this, and the men- 
tion of the shady cavern as a preferable retreat, it is plain 
that the poet meant to intimate that it was now the height 
of summer. — 6. succedimus. We may observe that this verb 
is followed, first by an accusative with a preposition {sub 
umbras), and then by a dative (antro). — 7- labrusca, the wild 
vine. — raris racemis, with wide, open bunches ; descriptive 
of the nature of the plant. For racemus, see the Flora, v. 
Vitis. 

8-9. Montibus, etc. This, with the preceding verses, shows 
that the scene of this eclogue, like that of the first, is laid 
among the mountains. — certat, and not certet, as Heyne reads. 
The meaning is, So far am I from venturing to contend 
with you in song, that in all our mountains there is no one 
who can do it except Amyntas, i. e. in his own opinion. Me- 
nalcas evidently means to express his contempt for that self- 
sufficient swain. — 9. Quid, si, etc. Oh, says Mopsus in the 
same strain, we need not wonder at that, for he will venture 
to contend with Phoebus himself. " Quid si c. conjunct." 
says Wagner, " de eo dicitur quod non est, non fit, non esse 
putatur aut fieri non potest: Terent. Fleaut. iv. 3, 4-1, Quid 
si nunc caelum mat?" etc. 

10-12. As they are still among the trees, on their way to the 
cavern, Menalcas calls on Mopsus to begin, mentioning to him 
a variety of rural themes, such as the love of Phyllis, the praises 
of Alcon, and the quarrels of Codrus. These were of course 
all imaginary persons, but Servius says that Phyllis was the 
Thracian princess of that name who hung herself for the love 
of Demophoon, the son of Theseus ; Alcon, a Cretan archer, 
the companion of Hercules, who (superior to William Tell) 
could send an arrow through a ring on the head of a man, cut 

V. 9. ffravTi viv 'H.pa.K\r\i [3it]v Kai Kcipros epicSev. — Theocr. iv. 8. 



64f BUCOLICS. 

a hair in two with an arrow, or cleave blunt arrows on the 
points of swords or lances ; Coclrus, the celebrated Attic king, 
who in disguise picked a quarrel with a Spartan soldier, and 
thus died for his country. There was also at this time a bad 
poet named Codrus, an enemy of Virgil's (Ec. vii. 26), who, 
Spohn thinks, may be meant. But why should only one of 
the three be a real person? — 12. Incipe, repeated as in iv. 62. 
— Tityrus, another herdsman, perhaps a servant of one of the 
others. 

13-15. Immo Jiaec, etc. No, says Mopsus, I will rather try 
some verses which I have lately composed. — viridi cortice, on 
the green bark. He carved them on the bark of the beech, 
as it stood, not on a piece of stript bark, as Voss thinks. The 
bark of the beech is better suited to this purpose than that of 
almost any other tree, on account of its smoothness. It may 
also be termed green, without much of a catachresis. — 14. mo- 
dulans alterna notavi, that is, as he carved them he composed 
the air to which he would sing them. Alterna, i. q. alternatim. 
— tu deinde, etc., scoffingly: 'When I shall have sung these, 
then tell Amyntas to sing against me.' 

16-18. Menalcas would intimate that it was only in jest 
that he had compared Amyntas with Mopsus. Fully to un- 
derstand the following comparisons, we must recollect that 
the leaves of the willow and the olive are of the same form, 
and of the same pale green colour, while the difference in 
value of the trees is immense. The saliunca, or Celtic nard 
(see the Flora), in like manner resembles the rose in odour, 
but is so brittle that it could not be woven into garlands, the 
great use made of the rose by the ancients. — pollens, i. q. pal- 
lidus. See on ii. 10. 

19-23. While Menalcas was speaking, they had reached 
the cavern and entered it. Mopsus then, after the usual pre- 
lude on his syrinx, commences his song on the death of Daph- 
nis. — plura, sc. dicere. — puer. See on i. 4-5. — 20. funere i. q. 
morte. From the employment of the terms crudeli funere, it 



V. 16. 'AW' ou Gv\ifi\i}T evri Kwoaflaros ovS' dvefiuva 

IIpos poda, tQv dvdrjpa Trap' aiuaaiaZvi 7re<pvKrj. — Theocr. v. 92. 



ECLOGUE V. 12-28. 65 

would seem that Daphnis had met with a violent death. — 21. 
Jlebant, the imperfect is here used to show the continuance of 
their grief. — vos — Nymphis. These words are parenthetic. In 
the usual poetic manner the trees and streams are animated 
and made capable of expression. — 22. Cum complexa, etc. 
In most editions there is a comma placed after cum. Wun- 
derlich, who is followed by Jahn and Wagner, saw that this 
gave a wrong sense, as complexa is then a participle, instead 
of a perfect tense, est being understood, as is frequently the 
case in Virgil. — 23. deos, sc. crudeles. The adj. is expressed 
with the following subst. — astra, because the stars were be- 
lieved to have so much influence on the lives of men. — vocal, 
instead of vocavit, as so often in Lucretius. Heyne, without 
any authority, says that vocat here signifies incusat. 

24-28. He now addresses the departed Daphnis himself, 
and tells him how universally his fate was deplored. — Non 
ulli, etc. The herdsmen were so absorbed in grief, that they 
did not, as was usual, drive their oxen after feeding to the 
streams to drink. — Mis diebus, the days succeeding the death 
of Daphnis. — 25. nidla nee amnem, etc. The cattle themselves 
grieved so that they did not taste of the water or grass. — 26. 

quadrupes, cattle in general graminis herbam, says Voss, is 

the young springing grass, like frumenti herba, Geor. i. 134. 
— 27. tuum, etc. ' Nay, the woods and mountains tell (see 
v. 21) that the very lions of the wild lamented thy fate.' — 
Poenos leones. There were, we know, no lions in Europe, but 
Virgil was here imitating Theocritus, and the ancient poets 
did not aim at accuracy in these matters. Poenos is what is 
termed an epitheton ornans, a thing of which the poets of the 
Augustan age were very fond : see on i. 54. — 28. loquuntur. 
Heyne thinks it rather bold in the poet to give speech to the 
woods and mountains, but this is a boldness of which poets 
have always claimed the use. 

29-31. He now celebrates Daphnis as the introducer of 
the rites of Bacchus. Warner thinks that all that is intended 



V. 27. Trivov pav 6(Zes, rr\vov \vkoi upvaavro, 

Trjvov %w 'k opujuolo \ea>v dveicXavffe Bavovra. — Theocr. i. 71. 



66 BUCOLICS. 

to be expressed in this passage is, that Daphnis introduced 
the culture of the vine. — curru sitbjungere, etc. Tigers were 
always the team of this god himself, but we do not hear of 
their being employed in his festivals either in Greece or Italy. 

— Armenias, an epitheton ornans. — curru, the old dative 30. 

ind/tccrc, Heyne says, is for the simple ducere ; but though 
simples were used for compounds, the reverse, as we have 
already observed, was not the case. — thiasos Bacchi. A thiasus 
(diaaos) was a choir, or a number of persons that assembled, 
went in procession, and sung, danced and feasted in honour 
of a god — 31. Et foliis, etc. A description of the thyrsus, 
which was a pointless spear, or any similar piece of wood, 
twined with vine-leaves. 

32-34. ' As the vine is the ornament of the elm-trees on 
which it is trained, as the bunches of grapes are of the vine, 
the bulls of the herds, the growing corn of the fertile fields, 
so you were the pride of your fellow-swains.' All images pro- 
perly selected from the country and country life. Cf. ii. 63. 

34-39- When you were gone, the rural deities deserted the 
fields, and in consequence rank crops of weeds and noxious 
plants sprang up in them. — Ipsa Pales, etc. The poet here 
confounds Grecian and Roman religion, which he should not 
have done ; for as the Greeks had no deity answering to Pales, 
if the scene of the eclogue is in Sicily he should not have in- 
troduced this Italian goddess ; while, if it is in Italy, Apollo 
was not a rural deity in the creed of the Italians, to whose re- 
ligion he in reality did not belong. But, as we have already 
observed, the ancient poets did not attend to minutiae of this 
kind. Pales seems to have presided over all the parts of rural 
life, and not merely over cattle, for her image bears a pruning- 
hook. See Mythology, p. 538. Apollo is here Apollo Nomios, 
Ibid. p. 127. — 36. mandavimus, we have committed, given in 
charge. Perhaps this is too swelling a term for bucolic sim- 
plicity. — Grandia /i or dea either expresses, as Voss thinks, the 
large grains selected for seed, or more simply merely indi- 



V. 32. Ta Spvi red fiaXavoi /cocr/tos, rq, fiaXtSi /xaXa' 

Tg, j3ot d' a /xocxos, r<£ /3wico\<^ al jSo'es avral. — Theocr. viii. 7i 



ECLOGUE V. 30-42. 67 

cates the size of the grains of barley, compared with those of 
the weeds which grew in its stead. It was an opinion of the 
ancients, that wheat and barley used to turn into lolium and 
wild-oats ; but the simple meaning of this passage is, that the 
corn did not and the weeds did grow. As Virgil seems to 
have been the first who used the plural of hqrdeum, his ene- 
mies Bavius and Maevius made the following verse on him: 
Hordea qui dixit, superest ut tritica dicat. — 37. Infelix. 
He terms the lolium infelix, unlucky or mischievous, accord- 
ing to Voss and Spohn, because it makes those who eat it 
stagger as if drunk or even blind, as Servius says. We how- 
ever agree with Heyne and Wagner in regarding infelix as 
equivalent to infecundus (felix answering to fecundus) ; and 
the sense is, that when they sowed edible and nutritive 
grain, the crop could not be converted to the use of man. 
In Aen. iii. 549. wild berries arc termed an infelix victus. 
Cf. also Geor. ii. 81. 239. 314. — nascuntur. When the poet 
repeated this line in the Georgics (i. 154), he with good taste 
substituted for this word dominantur, as suited to the higher 
character of that poem. — 38. molli viola. From the fields he 
passes to the garden. The viola is termed mollis, like other 
flowers (ii. 50. vi. 53), on account of the softness and ten- 
derness of its petals. — purpureo narcisso. The narcissus is so 
termed, we are told, on account of the purple calyx of one of 
its species. But perhaps purpureas is here to be taken in its 
ordinary sense of bright, and would thus apply to the white 
petals of the flower. — 39. Carduus, etc. We may observe a 
contrast with the flowers mentioned in v. 38. 

40-44. In conclusion, he calls on the shepherds to raise a 
tomb to Daphnis by a spring, and to plant trees about it. 
There appears to be here what is called a hysteron-proteron, 
as the tomb should have been the first mentioned. — Spargite, 
etc. It was the custom to strew leaves and flowers, as in 
modern times in some countries flowers, on the tombs of the 
departed. — inducite, etc., sc. by planting trees about \i.—fonti- 
bus, for fonte : plur. for sing, in the usual manner. — 41. mandat, 
sc. per me. — 42. carmen, a poetic inscription (namely, the 
following) on a cippus or stone pillar, placed on the summit 



68 BUCOLICS. 

of the mound. — i3. in silvis, 6 kv rj} vXri, qui in silvis deyebat, 
not " notus in silvis," as Servius understood it. — usque ad 
sidera, whose fame had reached the skies. See Aen. i. 379. 
The expression is better suited to epic than bucolic poetry. 

45-52. Menalcas, enraptured with the beauty of Mopsus' 
song, describes its effect on him by comparing it„with two of the 
greatest enjoyments a southern climate affords, namely, sleep 
when one is weary on the soft cool grass (under the shade, of 
course, of trees. Geor. i. 342, ii. 470), and quenching the thirst 
in the heat of summer (aestus) at a running stream {aquae 
rivo). — 48. Nee calamis, etc. ' I praised your skill on the 
pipes : I now add, that not only in music but in the compo- 
sition and singing of verses you fully equal your master, whose 
successor in fame you now will be. / however will also sing 
something for you (of whatever sort it may be), and I will 
exalt the fame of your Daphnis, for he loved me too.' — 51. 
toUemus ad aslra. It is perhaps more simple, with Heyne, to 
understand this of praising Daphnis : compare v. 43. and ix. 
49. Servius says it means, sing his apotheosis. 

53-55. Nothing, says Mopsus, could be more agreeable to 
me. Besides, Daphnis was worthy of praise, and I have heard 
a good judge speak highly of the verses that you made on him. 
— 54. puer, the swain, sc. Daphnis. See i. 45. — 55. Stimi- 
co/t, the name of an ideal shepherd. 

56-64. Menalcas having preluded, according to custom, 
on the pipes, commences his song of the apotheosis of Daph- 
nis, which, agreeably to the principle of balance and harmony, 
in which the ancients so much delighted, contains exactly the 
same number of verses as that of Mopsus, namely twenty- 
five. — Candidus, i. q.candens (see on ii. 10,), differs from, albus 
as always including the idea of brightness, in white usually, 
but sometimes in other colours, ex. gr. rubro ubi cocco Tincta 
svper lectos canderet vestis eburnos, Hor.S. ii. 6, 103. In this 

V.'43. Aa6vis eywv oce rfjvos, 6 rets fioas woe vojievwv, 

Ad(pvis 6 tojs ravpws icai Troprias wSe 7ro~iffdwv. — Theoc. i. 120. 

V. 45. 'Act; tl to ffTOfia roi, ical e<pifiepos, w Aaupvt, fwvd' 

Kpecraov /jLekTrofievoj rev ciKouefiev i) fieXi Xeixev. — Id. viii. 82. 



eclogue v. 43-64. 69 

place candidus seems to refer to the bright white of the body 
of the glorified Daphnis, similar to that of the gods : Nube 
candentes humeros amiclus Augur Apollo, Hor. C. i. 2, 31. 
Spohn says it means cheerful, unclouded by sorrow or pain. 
— Olympi. The hill of this name in Thessaly was the abode 
of the Homeric gods ; but in the course of time, and the pro- 
gress of knowledge, their dwelling was removed to the summit 
of the starry heaven : see Mythology, p. 37. This is the 
Olympus of this passage, and Daphnis, as being a stranger, is 
represented as viewing with some surprise the magnificence 
of the palace of the gods, on the threshold of which he stands 
about to enter. At the same time, looking back on the way 
by which he had ascended, he beholds beneath him not merely 
the clouds of the air, but the stars of the aether. — 58. Ergo, 
therefore, i.e. because he is become a god like Hercules, 
Castor and Pollux, and others. — alacris, etc. All rural nature 
rejoices, the woods, the fields, the herdsmen, and the rustic 
deities, Pan and the wood-nymphs. — 60. Nee lupus, etc. With 
this joy is united a sense of security, for the milder animals have 
nothing to fear from their usual enemies. The wolf no longer 
plans the destruction of the sheep, the hunter no more sets his 
toils for the deer. — 61. amat bonus, etc. The reason is, the 
deified Daphnis loves peace and tranquillity : bonus exactly 
answers to our good. The ancients, as we do, applied it to 
the deity: see v. 65, and Vos o mild Manes, Este boni, Aen. 
xii. 647. — otia, properly leisure. Perhaps there is something 
intensive in the use of the plural in this place. — 62. Ipsi lae- 
titia, etc. Not merely the plain and cultivated country re- 
joices, the very mountains with their rocks and trees send forth 
a voice of song to celebrate his deification. — Intonsi, unshorn, 
whose woods are uncut. — 64. arbusta: see on ii. 13. Voss, 
as usual, restricts it to the trees on which vines were trained. 
— deus, deus Me, Menalca. The poet, in his inspiration, fancies 
he hears the rocks and woods thus calling out to him. 

65-73. Sis bonus ofelixque tuis ! Being, as it were, cer- 



V. 60. "Egtcil Sr) tout' ajxap, ojraviica ve(3pbv ev evva 

Kapxapocaiv aiveadai ISojv Xvkos ovk eOeXijuei. — Theoc. xxiv. 84. 



70 BUCOLICS. 

tifiecl by the voice of nature of the divine power of Daphnis, 
Menalcas prays to him. For bonus, see on v. 61. Felix, pro- 
pitious : Sis felix nostrumque leves qitaecnnque laborem, Aen. 
i. 330. — en quatuor aras, etc. The shepherds raise altars to 
Daphnis, along with those of Apollo Nomios, as having be- 
come a rural deity. But, say the critics, as victims were 
offered to the latter, his altars were the larger kind named 
altaria, on which burnt offerings were consumed, while those 
of Daphnis, to whom only bloodless offerings were to be made 
as a hero, were the smaller kind, named simple arete. We 
however doubt of this nice distinction in this place. Each 
is to have two altars, a circumstance of which we know not 
the reason. Voss and Spohn say, that more victims might be 
slain or more sacrifices offered. Cf. Geor. iv. 541. — 67. Pocula 
bina, etc. He tells the offerings that will be annually made at 
the altars of Daphnis, namely, at each two cups of new milk, 
and two craters or large bowls of olive-oil, or, it may be, one 
of each at each altar. We know not why Spohn interpreted 
it two cups and one crater at each. — olivi, i. q. olei, a poetic 
word used by Lucretius, ex. gr. ii. 849. — 69. Et mnlto, etc. 
At the banquet, which as usual will succeed the sacrifice, 
plenty of wine will be drunk ; before the fire, if it should be in 
the cold season ; in the shade, if in summer, the harvest time. 
— 71. vina Ariusia, sc. the best of wine, the produce of the 
Ariusian district in the isle of Chios. Voss takes some pains 

V. 67. Sraerw Oe Kparrtpa jxeyav XevKolo yaXciKros 

Tats ~Svf*<pais' araaio de icai aoeos dXXov eXaiw. — Theoc. v. 53. 

Sracrw b" oktw fiev yavXws rep liavl yaXajcros, 

'Okj-w Be (TKa<pL8as fieXiros irXea icrjpi' exoiaas. — Id. v. 58. 

V. 69. K?7yw, tvvo kut iijiap, avr\rivov, t) poSoevra, 

"H feat XevKotoJv aretyavov Ttepi Kpari (pvXaaawv 

Tbv YlreXeariKov dlvov airb Kparrjpos ckJiv^o), 

Tldp Trvpl KeKXtjAevos' icvctfiov fie ris ev Trvpl (ppv^el, 

X'a VTifias kaaeirai TreTrvicafffieva ear e-rrl ttuxw 

KvvZq. t aaipodeXy re TroXvyvdjiTTT^ re aeXivij). 

Kai iriojiai /xaXaKbis, /leixvtijxevos 'Ayedvaicros, 

AvTalaiv icvXiicecrai. /cat es rpvya %eIXos epeifiiov. 

AvXr\aevvri ce fioi dvo Troifiever els fiev, ' Ax^pvevs' 

Els Be, Ai)KW7riras* o Be Tirvpos eyyuOev q,oel. — Id. vii. 63. 



ECLOGUE V. 61-80. 71 

to show that Chian wine was at this time so common at Rome, 
that the Mantuan swains might easily have procured some of 
it for their solemn festivals. It is perhaps more simple to re- 
gard Arhcsia as merely an epilheton ornans. — novum nectar, 
like nova carmina, iii. 86. — calathis, cups shaped like the calyx 
of the narcissus. — 72. Cantahunt, etc. The feast will, as usual, 
be accompanied by singing and dancing. — Lyctius, from Lycta 
in Crete. The proper names here do not indicate any real 
persons. — Saltantes Satyros, etc. He will dance the Satyr (Cf. 
Hor. S. L 5, 63), i. e. imitate the rude dancing of the Satyrs. 

74-80. Haec tibi semper erunt, etc. It would hence ap- 
pear that the worship of Daphnis was to be celebrated twice 
a yeai", viz. at the festival of the Nymphs and at the Ambar- 
valia. Respecting the latter there is no difficulty : it was a 
festival of Ceres celebrated in the end of April, Geor. i. 338. 
The former presents some difficulty, for the Italian religion 
did not recognise the Dryads and other Nymphs of the Gre- 
cian mythology. Voss and others therefore suppose it to 
denote the autumnal Vinalia, which without any authority 
they choose to denominate Liberalia, as a festival of Bacchus, 
instead of one of Jupiter and Venus (see Mythology, p. 516), 
and transfer it from August to October or November in order 
to explain the ante focum of v. 70. We, with Heyne, place 
the scene of the eclogue in Sicily ; and we suppose the poet 
to have been little solicitous about the dates of festivals, and 
therefore to have felt no hesitation about making Sicilian 
swains celebrate the Latin Ambarvalia. — 76. Dumjuga montis 
aper, etc., i. e. as long as the present course of nature will re- 
main ; expressed by images taken from rural objects : while 
the wild-boar haunts the mountains, the fishes the streams, the 
bees the gardens, and the cicadae the trees. — 77. thymo, thyme, 
the favourite plant of the bees. — rore. It was an opinion of 
the ancients that the cicada lived on dew. M17 Trpuicas pi-Iv- 
Eerai uiairep 6 rerrt^ ; Theocr. iv. 16. For the cicada, see on 
ii. 13. — 79. Ut Baccho, etc. Thy festivals shall as surely be 
celebrated as those of Bacchus and Ceres. We do not think 
that it follows from this that his festivals were to coincide with 
theirs. — 80. damnabis votis, you will constrain them to pay 



72 BUCOLICS. 

their vows to thee by granting them the things for which they 
prayed. 

81-84*. Mopsus, after, as we may suppose, a pause of de- 
light, cries out that he never can reward him sufficiently for 
such a song, more delightful to his senses than the most 
agreeable sounds of nature in the heat of summer. These 
are the whispering in the trees of the soft south when it begins 
to blow ; the gentle breaking of the waves on the shore of the 
sea (the Mediterranean, we must remember) ; and the sound 
of streams as they run over their stony beds in the valleys. 
This, we may observe, harmonises more with such a country 
as Sicily than with the wide level plain of Lombardy. Voss 
spoils the whole imagery by referring the lltora and fluctu of 
v. 83 to lake Benacus, for a lake never has waves unless there 
is a strong wind blowing. 

85-87. Before you give me anything, says Menalcas (who 
seems here to represent the poet himself), I must present you 
with the syrinx on which I composed two of my best poems, 
namely the second and third Eclogues. — cicuta. See on ii. 36. 
— 87- docuit. As they played on the syrinx when composing 
their verses, it is said to teach them. 

88-90. In return, says Mopsus, I give you my handsome 
crook, which I refused to Antigenes (a feigned name), amiable 
as he was. — Formosum, etc. The crook (in Greek KuXavpo-fy 
and XaywfioXos) was usually made of olive-wood, which was 
knotty, and was often adorned with brass rings or studs. — 
89. tulit, i. e. abstalit, sc. secum. 

Observations. 

Date. — Of the date of this poem we can only assert with 
certainty that it is posterior to those of the second and third. 
It was probably composed in 710-12. 

V. 83. "Aoiov, u> TTOt/JLciv, to reov fieXos, ?; to Ka.Ta.xcs 

Tr\v a—b tus Trerpas KaraXeifieTcu vipoQev vSutp. — Theoc. i. 7. 

V. 85. Xii [lev Tip (Tvpiyy', 6 Se T(fi KaXou auXbv eSooKev. — Id.vi.43. 

V. 88. lav toi, e0a, icopiivav GwpvTTOfiai, ovveicev ecrai 

Hav e7r' aXaQeiy 7T67r\acrjUbvoi' e/c Aids epvos. — Id. vii. 43. 



ECLOGUE V. 73 

Subject. — Supposing, as is probable, this to be one of Vir- 
gil's earliest eclogues, and written when, as the second and 
third show, he was thoroughly imbued with the Theocritean 
poetry, we might naturally expect that its subject would be 
of a kindred character to some of those of the Idylls of his 
master. Now of all the Idylls of Theocritus none seems to 
have made a stronger impression on our poet's mind than the 
first, the chief subject of which is the death of Daphnis, the 
celebrated Sicilian shepherd, the son of the rural deity Hermes 
by a Nymph, and consequently a Hero according to the ideas 
of the later times. What, therefore, could be more natural 
than that he should again take the opportunity of measuring 
himself with his master, and as he had sung the death of 
Daphnis and its cause, to make the theme of his muse the 
general grief for that death and the apotheosis of the hero ? 
The whole structure of the eclogue agrees fully with this hy- 
pothesis. In Theocritus one shepherd asks another to sing, 
and offers him a reward for so doing ; in Virgil it is the same, 
but slightly varied, for each sings and each gives the other a 
present. As usual, however, the management of the subject 
is less skilful than in the Greek poet. In the respective songs 
the expressions employed all accord with Daphnis. His death 
is termed a crudele f units, for he is the victim of the vengeance 
of Venus : the Nymphs lament him, as he is of their kindred, 
rov Mwtrats <pi\ov avhpa, tov oh Nuju0a to-tv awe^drj (Idyll i. 
141). The Punic lions, our poet says, lamented Daphnis 
when dead, and the same beast wept for him when dying 
(Idyll i. 71). As to what Virgil adds about Daphnis having 
introduced the rites of Bacchus, he had no warrant for it 
in his Greek original; and he seems here, as so frequently 
elsewhere, to have erred against bucolic simplicity and the 
rules of taste. In the song of the apotheosis everything, 
in like manner, accords with Daphnis. Like Hercules and 
other heroes, he is admitted to the abode of the gods in 
the celestial Olympus ; but he becomes a rural deity, and 
extends his protecting care to, and holds dominion over, the 
dwellers of the country. We thus see how this eclogue con- 
nects itself with the Idyll of Theocritus, of which in effect it 



74 BUCOLICS. 

is a second part, taking up the story of Daphnis where the 
Greek poet had left it. 

One might think that this simple and natural view of this 
eclogue was the true one, and in effect it was the one generally- 
received in antiquity. " MvM" says Servius, " dicunt sim- 
pliciter hoc loco defied Daphnim quendam pastorem." He 
then relates the story of the Sicilian Daphnis. There how- 
ever, he adds, were others whom this simple sense did not 
satisfy, and who saw in Daphnis some real person of our poet's 
own time ; his brother Flaccus, according to some ; his rela- 
tive Quintilius (on the occasion of whose death Horace is 
supposed to have addressed to our poet the twenty-fourth ode 
of hi^ first book), according to others. But the more preva- 
lent opinion was, that by Daphnis was meant the dictator, 
Julius Caesar; the crudclc funus signifying his assassination, 
the mater being Venus, from whom the Julian gens derived 
its origin ; the lions and tigers, the peoples whom he had 
subdued ; the formosinn pecus, the Roman people ; the thiasos, 
the sacred rites which as Pontifex Maximus he had instituted, 
especially those of Bacchus, which (though history is silent 
on the point) Servius asserts as a fact he first introduced into 
Rome. 

This last is the opinion almost universally adopted by the 
moderns ; Heyne, we believe, alone taking the same view as 
ourselves. Perhaps we might add Marty n. That it could 
not be Quintilius is clear, for his death occurred in 730, long 
after the eclogues had been published ; and though the ancient 
author of the Life of Virgil says that he mourned the death 
of his brother Flaccus under the name of Daphnis, and there 
is remaining the following distich of an uncertain poet, — 

" Tristia fata tui dura fles in Daphnide Flacci, 
Docte Maro, fratrem dis immortalibus aequas ;" 

this opinion has only found favour in the eyes of the elder 
Scaliger and of Catrou. 

The argument in favour of Caesar being the Daphnis of this 
eclogue is stated to this effect by Spohn. Shortly after the 
death of Caesar, in 708-10, Octavianus celebrated games in 



ECLOGUE V. 75 

honour of Venus Genetrix ; about which time a comet ap- 
peared, which the people held to be the soul of Caesar, who 
had been received among the gods ; and Octavianus placed a 
statue of him in the temple of Venus Genetrix, with a star on 
his head, inscribed Kaieapi fj/jadeu), and the month Quinctilis 
was named Julius from him. In 710-12, the Triumvirs bound 
themselves by oath to ratify all Caesar's acts ; his image, as 
that of a god, was carried with the others in the Circensian 
pomp ; a chapel was raised to him in the Forum, where his 
body had been burned, and it was granted the rights of an 
asylum ; all were commanded, under severe penalties, to keep 
his birthday as a holyday ; but as he was born on the day of 
the Ludi Apollinares, and the Sibylline books forbade any god 
but Apollo to be honoured on that day, his festival was held 
on the preceding day. This festival was celebrated more joy- 
ously in Cisalpine Gaul than elsewhere, first, because after the 
end of the Mutinensian war there were strong hopes of better 
times, and then, because when Caesar had held the govern- 
ment of that region he had bestowed many favours on its in- 
habitants. Virgil, therefore, as a partaker in the common 
feeling and in the common joy, and perhaps by the advice of 
Pollio, took this occasion of celebrating the late dictator ; and, 
partly to avoid giving offence to the friends and admirers of 
the old republic, and partly to give his strains more of a poetic 
air, he adopted the bucolic form and sung the death and apo- 
theosis of Caesar as those of the shepherd Daphnis. 

The reader will see that this is all a gratuitous hypothesis. 
We are here required to believe that Virgil, who was per- 
haps the least original poet of antiquity, was the inventor of a 
new species of poetry ; for none of the critics has given any 
instance of it in any preceding poet, and the allegory, of which 
Horace is supposed to present an example (Carm. i. 14.), is of 
quite a different nature. We think, on the contrary, that it 
was the progress of Christianity and the doctrine of the typical 
character of the personages and narratives of the Old Testa- 
ment that led the heathens to look for something similar in 
their own literature. Virgil, then, as the poet of highest re- 
pute among the Latins, and perhaps as offering the greatest 

e2 



76 BUCOLICS. 

facilities for this mode of interpretation, was the one to whom 
it was chiefly applied ; and to what an extent it was carried, we 
have shown in our View of Bucolic Poetry. It is needless 
therefore to expatiate on it here ; and Servius, in effect, else- 
where (on iii. 20) seems to give us the opinions of the more 
judicious critics, when he says, "Melius simpliciter accipimus. 
Refutandae enim sunt allegoriae in bucolico carmine; nisi 
cum, ut supra diximus, ex aliqua agrorum perditorum neces- 
sitate descendunt ;" of course meaning the first and ninth 
eclogues. 

Characters. — According to the hypothesis which we follow, 
Mopsus, Menalcas, and the other characters are Sicilian shep- 
herds. Servius tells us, that Menalcas is Virgil himself, Mop- 
sus his friend, Acmilius Macer a Veronese poet, and Stimicon 
Maecenas. Catrou says that Mopsus was Alexander (the 
Alexis of the second eclogue), and Amyntas Cebes another 
supposed slave and pupil of our poet. 

Scenery. — The scene, as in the first eclogue, is in an ideal 
region of mountains (v. 8), valleys and streams (v. 84), in 
which there are caverns (v. 6) and beech-trees (v. 13), elms 
(v. 3), and other trees and plants (v. 7), and which is near the 
sea (v. 83). It accords perfectly well with Sicily, as described 
in Theocritus, and hardly at all with the plain of Lombardy. 



Eclogue VI. — Silenus. 



Argument. 



The god Silenus had often tantalised two satyrs, or shepherds, 
with a promise of a song. At length one day they seized and 
bound him while he was sleeping under the influence of wine. 
Being unable to escape, he commenced, and sung the origin 
of the world and some of the most remarkable events of the 
mythic ages of Greece. 



ECLOGUE VI. 1-5. 77 



Notes. 



1-12. Prima, etc. ' My Muse first deigned, or thought fit, 
to sing in pastoral verse, and blushed not to dwell in the woods.' 
By prima most interpreters understand the poet to mean that 
he was the first Latin bucolic poet. But it is perhaps better 
to suppose, with Heyne and Wagner, his meaning to be, 
that it was in pastoral poetry his muse made her first essay. 
This corresponds better with the modesty of this introduction. 
— Syracosio, Theocritean or bucolic. Instead of the Latin 
Syracusio, the poet (probably on account of the metre) em- 
ploys the Greek 2vpaicoo-<«. — dignata est. This does not per- 
haps mean condescended, for the poet is speaking in a humble 
tone, but rather she thought fit, thought suited to her powers. 
— ludere, see on i. 10. — 2. Thalia may be merely equivalent 
with Musa ; but, owing to her name (from BdXXw, vireo,) this 
Muse was held to preside over the growth of plants. See Plut. 
Symp. ix. 14. Sch. Apol. Rh. iii. 1. — 3. Cum canerem, etc. It 
would seem from this that Virgil had commenced, or at least 
meditated, something in the epic strain on the exploits of Varus. 
See Ec. ix. 26. But perhaps it is only a part of his fiction in 
this place. — reges. If the civil wars in which Varus had been 
engaged had been his proposed theme, the reges were probably 
the rival chiefs. Perhaps reges et proelia is merely a hendy- 
adis, the wars of kings, the usual theme of epic poetry. It is 
said that Virgil had commenced a poem on the deeds of the 
kings of Alba, but gave it up, deterred by the harshness of 
their names. Their names however are not harsh, and the 
whole fiction is no doubt indebted to this verse for its origin. — 
Cynthius, a name of Apollo, from Mount Cynthos in Delos. — 
aurem vellit. The ear was regarded as the seat of knowledge, 
because knowledge among the ancients was chiefly attained 
by means of it : the ear was pulled to awaken the attention. 
See Hor. S. i. 9, 77 ; Plin. xi. 103. — 4*. Tityre, a general name 
for a shepherd : it has nothing to do with the Tityrus of the first 
eclogue.— pinguis, "ut pinguiscant," Servius, to feed them 
fat — 5. Pascere, etc., ' the only business of a shepherd should 
be to feed his flocks and to make slight rustic songs.' — de- 



78 BUCOLICS. 

dnctum carmen, a drawn-out (i. e. thin, slight) song, as opposed 
to the firm solid epic. The metaphor is taken from spinning, 
where the thin thread was drawn down from the wool on the 
distaff. Horace (Ep. ii. 1, 225) says tenui deducta poemata 
filo, of poems which had been composed with great care and 
skill, as the thinner the thread the greater the skill of the 
spinster. Quintilian (viii. 2, 9) says, that Virgil was the first 
to hazard the expression deduction carmen. Macrobius (vi. 4) 
shows that deducta voce had been used by the poets Afranius 
and Cornificius. — 6. super tibi erunt, i. e. supererunt tibi ; a 
tmesis. — 7. Tore. See the Observations. — tristia bella, i.e. the 
civil wars. — 8. Agrcstem, etc. See i. 2. — 9. Non injussa, be- 
cause Apollo had desired him, v. 5. — Si quis, etc. ' If any who 
love rural poetry, or who like verses of which you are the sub- 
ject, will read these rustic strains as well as those epic lays 
(v. 6) in your honour, then also the woods and plains will re- 
sound your praises.' — 11. nee Phoebo, etc. ' Nor is there any 
poem in which Phoebus more delights than one which bears 
on its title the name of Varus.' — 12. pagina is the page of a 
book: it is here for charta. Perhaps, though the poet is 
speaking in his own person, there is a slight departure from 
bucolic simplicity. — Vari praescripsit nomen. It would seem 
from this that the true title of the eclogue was Varus, and not 
Silenus. 

13-17. Pergite, Pierides. He now begins the narrative. 
The Muses were called Pierides from Pieria, where they were 
born or first worshiped. See iii. 85. — Chromis et Mnasylos, 
two young satyrs, say the critics, following Servius. Yet it 
may be doubted if the pueri of the next line would be used 
of deities, even though of a low order. See Observations. 
— 14. jacentem somno, exactly answering to our, lying asleep, 
i.e. in sleep. — 15. Inflation venas, the Greek accusative. — 
tit semper, for he was always, according to the poets, wholly 
or half-drunk. — 16. Serta procul, etc. His garland, which 
had just fallen from his head, was lying at a (little) di- 
stance. There should be a comma after procul. Tantum is 
here equivalent to modo, and was so understood by Servius. 
Valerius Flaccus says (viii. 289), Quaeque die fuerat raptim 



ECLOGUE VI. 7-23. 79 

formata sub uno, Et tan turn dejecta suis a montibus arbor. 
— 17. Et gravis, etc. The cantharus, probably so named from 
its resemblance in form to the body of a beetle, was a large 
drinking-vessel with handles. The poet perhaps conceived 
Silenus to have fallen asleep while sitting drinking, otherwise 
it is not easy to see why he would say that the cantharus was 
hanging by its well-worn handle. He represents the god as 
still holding it, though drunk. 

18-22. Having him thus at their mercy, they lay hold on 
him and bind him while asleep. The binding, as it was effected 
with his own garland of flowers, must have been slight indeed ; 
perhaps the poet, as the tone is sportive here, meant that it 
should be so understood. The idea of binding the god in order 
to make him speak was doubtless taken from the adventure of 
Menelaus with Proteus in the Odyssey. There was however 
a story (said by Servius to have been related by the historian 
Theopompus) of Silenus having been taken when drunk and 
bound by some Phrygian shepherds, who led him to king 
Midas, to whose questions respecting the origin of things and 
the events of former days he gave responses. The poet may 
have had this tale in his mind. We may observe that Ovid, 
when relating the capture of Silenus (Met. xi. 90), describes 
him as vinctum coronis, having no doubt this place of Virgil 
in view. — 20. timidis supervenit Aegle. While they were he- 
sitating from fear, the nymph Aegle, who we may suppose 
suggested the stratagem, comes to their aid and encourages 
them. Aegle answers to the Eidothea of the Odyssey, and to 
the Cyrene of Geor. iv. 315, etc. — timidis, i. q. timeniibus, see 
on ii. 10.— 9,1. jam videnti, as he was wakening. — 22. Sangui- 
neus , etc. Out of sport she presses blackberries on his forehead, 
and stains it red with their juice. The ancients, we may re- 
collect, used to paint their rural deities of a red hue : Ec. x. 25. 

23-30. Laughing at their plot, he says, ' What are you 
binding me for, my lads ? let me go ; it is quite enough that 
you seem to be able to bind me.' It is thus that the modern 
commentators, after Servius, understand the latter part of 
this passage. Servius however also explains it thus : " suf- 
ficit enim quia potui a vobis, qui estis homines, videri ;" for he 



80 BUCOLICS. 

adds, " the semigods could only be seen when they pleased." If 
this be the true interpretation, it tends to show that the two 
youths were men, which is confirmed by the timidis of v. 20, 
and the analogy that, in all the cases related of seizing gods, 
the agents were men, as Menelaus, Peleus, Aristaeus, Numa. — 
26. Huic ciliud, etc., ' I'll pay her in another way.' — 27. Turn 
vero in numerum, etc. The power of his song affects all nature. 
The rural gods and the wild animals dance in rythmic mea- 
sure (in numerum), and the trees wave their heads in cadence. 
Mount Parnassus and the beasts of its woods did not rejoice 
so much in the music of Phoebus Apollo, nor the Thvacian 
mountains Ismarus and Rhodope in that of Orpheus. For the 
effect of music on nature, under another sky and another sy- 
stem of manners and religion, see the Swedish ballads of Sir 
Thynne and Little Kcrsten in the Fairy Mythology. 

31-40. Virgil was probably a follower of the Epicurean 
philosophy, then so much in vogue at Rome, and which had 
not long before been clothed in verse, of no common merit, 
by Lucretius. He naturally therefore put that system into the 
mouth of Silenus, when about to make him sing the creation. 
According to Epicurus, the universe consisted of an immense 
space, in which were in incessant motion countless solid par- 
ticles, which, from their minuteness and solidity, being inca- 
pable of section, he termed atoms (aro/doi). By their continual 
motion numbers of these atoms were brought into conjunction 
and formed various masses, but it was only when similar atoms 
happened to come together that anything permanent was pro- 
duced. Hence, according to this philosopher, gradually arose 
the world. The system was ingenious, and to a certain extent 
true, but it had the great and incurable defect of excluding a 

V. 31. 'Heitfei' S' (is yaia Kai oupavbs r/de OdXacrva' 

To irpiv eir' dWyXoiffi fiiij <Jvvapr\poTa pop(py, 
NeiKfios e£ oXooto SieKpiOev dfifis eKatrra' 
'Ho' ws efnreOov aiev ev aiBepi TeKfiap exovoiv 
Aarpa ae\i]vair} re Kai r)e\ioio Ke\ev9oi' 
Ovpea 9' ws avereiXe, Kai ws Trorafioi tceXaSovres 
Avryaiv 'Nv/Ji^iri Kai eptrerd Travra yevovro. 

Apoll. Rh. i. 496. 



ECLOGUE -vi. 26-36. 81 

presiding and ordering Mind, and ascribing all to blind chance; 
hence it Avas justly regarded as atheism. — 31. magnum inane, 
the Chaos or great void of the Epicurean theory. — coacta, 
brought together by their internal power, not by any external 
force. — 32. Semina, the seeds, i. e. the constituting atoms. — 
animae, of the air. — mains, of the water, a principal part being 
put for the whole. — 33. liquidi ignis, fire, particularly the aether, 
the region above the air, for it was thence that the earth de- 
rived its light and flame. Liquidus is i. q. liquens, flowing ; 
the aether being conceived to consist of pure fire, as the sea of 
water. We are here to observe, that these are all Lucretian 
terms : thus we meet magnum inane, i. 1096 ; semina rerum, 
i. 177 ; anuria for air, i. 716; liquidus ignis, vi. 204. — ut his 
exordia primis Omnia, etc. From these primary elements, i. e. 
atoms, arose all things, namely, as he had just said, the four 
constituting elements, and the containing hollow orb of the 
world within which they lay. The world of the ancients only 
contained the solar system. Such also is the world of Milton in 
the Paradise Lost. See the Mythology, p. 41. — 34. tener, ten- 
der, soft, as being newly formed. — concreverit, grew together, 
in allusion to the gradual formation by the concourse of atoms. 
— 35. Turn durare solum, etc. ( Ut is to be understood before 
turn, sc. Cecinit ut turn, not as Heyne gives it, Cecinit turn ut.) 
'How then the earth or ground (solwrri) began to harden and 
press out the water which was then collected in the bed which 
had sunk for it.' — discludere seems to contain in it the idea of 
excluding, separating (dis), and shutting up (cludere). It also 
is a Lucretian term, as v. 439. — Nerea. The sea-god Nereus 
is in the usual manner taken for the object over which he 
presided, namely the sea, i. e. the Mediterranean. — ponto. By 
pontus we must here understand the bed of the sea. In He- 
siod's Theogony, v. 233, Nereus is the son of Pontus, that is, 
perhaps, the sea arises out of its bed. — 36. et rerum, etc. And 
gradually the earth (solum) began to assume the forms of 
things, namely, says Voss, to form strands, hills, vales, rivers, 
etc., but without plants or animals. Heyne says, it is " et 
paullatim herbis arboribusque vestiri;" and perhaps, though 
the growth of the woods is mentioned afterwards, this is the 

e5 



82 BUCOLICS. 

best way to understand it. — 37. Jamque novum terrae, etc. 
' And how now the solid land gazes with astonishment on the 
new-formed sun, and the rain or moisture falls on it from a 
greater height, the clouds being now elevated.' Virgil here 
shows his talent for judicious personification, by which he di- 
stinguishes himself so much in the Georgics. The idea to be 
conveyed is, that the sun, when formed, shone with full vigour 
on the earth, and drew up and made clouds of the water which 
lay in the form of vapour on its surface. Hence, he says, that 
the rain came from a greater height, not meaning that rain 
had fallen before, but simply that the moisture lay at a greater 
distance. Wunderlich, improperly we think, joins altius with 
submotis. — 39. Incipiant, etc. He next sings how the trees 
and shrubs began to clothe the face of the earth, and how men 
and other animals began to appear on it. — cum primum seems 
to be here equivalent to the simple primum, for ut is under- 
stood before incipiant. In like manner primum is to be un- 
derstood after the second cum. — 4-0. animalia. Men are in- 
cluded, for, according to Epicurus, they were originally little 
superior to the brutes. — ignaros. This, which is the reading of 
a Vatican and a Medicean MS., is adopted by Voss, Jahn, Wag- 
ner and Forbiger, and approved of by Heyne, though he has 
the vulgar one ignotos in his text. No person of taste, we 
think, can hesitate between the two. The former is perfectly 
Virgilian, personifying the mountains as knowing not their 
new inhabitants. Voss spoils the passage by translating igna- 
ros passively unknown. 

41, 42. Hinc lapides, etc. Passing thence, namely from 
the creation, he sings various events of the mythic ages. The 
ancient poets (and sometimes even the historians) did not in 
their narratives confine themselves to the strict order of 
events, attending more to the harmony of the verse. The 
mythic events Avhich he here selects are the restoration of the 
human race after the Flood, by Deucalion and Pyrrha, by 
means of the stones, which in obedience to the oracle they 
flung behind them ; the golden age under Saturn ; the theft 
of fire by Prometheus, and his consequent punishment. Those 
versed in mythic lore must know, that of these events the first 



eclogue vi. 37-47. 83 

was the last in order of time, and that the theft of Prometheus 
must have preceded his punishment : this last hysteroproteron 
by the way is exactly of the same kind with that in Aen. vi. 
567, Castigat auditque dolos. Wagner suspects the words 
Saturnia regno,, which, because there is no enclitic, appear to 
be in apposition with lapides Pyrrhae, and he is therefore in- 
clined to read Titania for Saturnia, as Pyrrha is called Titania 
by Ovid. But Jahn shows that there is no ground for his 
suspicion. All the mythes touched on here, and in the re- 
maining verses of the eclogue, are in general well-known and 
will be found in the author's Mythology. 

43-46. He then sings the tale of Kylas, who, having ac- 
companied Hercules in the Argonautic expedition, was stolen 
by the nymphs of a fountain ; and that of Pasiphae, wife of 
Minos king of Crete, who fell in love with a bull. — His ad- 
jungit, etc. To these he adds in what fountain Hylas being 
left, the seamen shouted Hylas till the whole coast resounded 
Hylas ! Hylas ! Relictum intimates that their labour was in 
vain, as they had to go away without him. In the construc- 
tion of v. 44 he follows the Greek mode, not cutting off the 
final vowel of Hyla before a following vowel, litus Hyla Hyla 
omne sonaret. — 45. Et fortunatam, etc. 'And he consoles, in 
her love of the snow-white bull, Pasiphae happy if herds had 
never been.' That is, he sings the love of Pasiphae. — 46. ju- 
venci, to denote that the bull was young. Voss conjectures 
that; this legend was roguishly introduced by Silenus, on ac- 
count of the presence of Aegle. But this is refining too much ; 
the poet probably selected it merely on account of its admit- 
tance of pastoral imagery. 

47-51. Silenus addresses Pasiphae as if she was before 
him, wandering through the mountains in quest of her beloved 
bull. ' What madness possesses thee ? ' says he, 'for the daugh- 
ters of Proetus, king of Argos, when, smitten with insanity 
by Juno, they roamed about fancying themselves changed 
into cows, did not like you seek the embraces of the herd.' — 

Vv. 47. 52. " All virgo infelix, herbis pasceris amaris." — 

Calvus. Io, ap. Servium. 



84- BUCOLICS. 

virgo infelix. The Latins used their virgo (contracted from 
virago) and puella, as the Greeks their ivapderos and Kopu., to 
denote a young woman whether married or single. — 48. falsis 
mugitibus, because they only fancied themselves to be cows. — 
50. timuisset aratrum. The ancients ploughed with heifers as 
well as oxen. — 51. levi, smooth, as not having horns, which 
she used to put up her hands expecting to find there. 

52-60. Ah virgo infelix, repeated from v. 47, a practice 
in which our poet delighted. — 53. Ille latus niveum, etc. We 
have here a beautiful piece of rural imagery, a snow-white 
bull lying on a bank of flowers beneath the dense shade of 
the dark-green holm-oak, and there quietly chewing the cud. 
— -firftus hyacintho. The poet, we may observe, ventures on 
giving the h in hyacintho the power of a consonant, and thus 
makes the us in Julius long. He does the same in Geor. iv. 137. 
■—54. pallentis, Heyne says, is yXiopds, green, but the passages 
to which he refers (ii. 47, iii. 39, v. 16) do not bear him out. 
Perhaps the poet means, as Servius explains it, to express the 
change in the colour of the grass caused by mastication. — 
55. Claudite, Nymphae, etc. In the person of Pasiphae, fearing 
a rival among the kine, he cries out to the nymphs to prevent 
the escape of the bull from the wood in which he was pas- 
turing. — 56. nemorum saltus. Saltus, akin to ciXaos, is, we 
believe, in this place a wooded glen. We would therefore, 
instead of with Heyne and Voss, taking the saltus to be 
merely the entrance to the nemus, suppose a hendyadis for 
nemorosos saltus, or saltuosa nemora. — 57. Si qua forte, etc. 
If I may chance to find some traces of the rambling steer. — 
lovis, i. q. tauri. — 58. forsitan, etc. Mayhap he is gone, en- 
ticed by some kine to one of the cotes in the mountains. — 
60. stabula, see on iii. 80. — ■ Gortynia. Gortyna or Gortys was 
the nearest city of Crete to Cnossus, the residence of Minos. 
Some therefore suppose an opposition here, as if he was to 
leave the herds of Cnossus and join those of Gortyna ; but 
it is more simple and more Virgilian to take Gortynian as 
equivalent to Cretan, a kind of epitheton ornans. 

61-34. Then he sings how Atalanta, running after the 
apples of the Hesperides which Hippomenes flung before her, 



ECLOGUE VI. 48-67« 85 

was vanquished by him in the race. Then he relates the story 
of Phaethon, and the transformation of his sisters into trees 
on the banks of the Eridanus, poetically expressed by saying 
that he covers them with mossy bark and raises them as tall 
trees on the bank of the river. — 62. musco amarae corticis, 
with the moss of (i. e. that grew on) the bitter bark of the 
trees. The ancients remarked that he here makes cortex 
(which is always masculine) of the feminine gender. — 63. 
alnos, alders. Virgil elsewhere (A en. x. 190) says, in ac- 
cordance with the common account, that they were changed 
into poplars. 

64-73. Though the eclogue is dedicated to Varus, the 
poet artfully takes the occasion of paying a handsome com- 
pliment to Cornelius Gallus, another of his friends and pro- 
tectors, who was himself a poet, and who had translated 
sundry pieces of the Greek poet Euphorion, among others 
probably one on the origin of the sacred grove of Apollo at 
Grynium in Aeolis. He supposes that as Gallus was roaming 
along the banks of the Permessus, a stream which flows from 
Mount Helicon, he was met by one of the Muses, who led him 
to the summit of the hill, where her sisters and the poet Linus 
were assembled. — 65. Aonas in monies. Among the Aonian 
(i.e. Boeotian) mountains, that is one of these mountains, 
namely Helicon, the principal of them. Aonas for Aonias, 
like Medus Hydaspes, the name of the people being employed 
for the adjective derived from it. — sororum, sc. Musarum. The 
Muses are often thus called. — 66. viro, to Gallus. — chorus, 
the Muses. — 67. Linus. Linus was the son of the Muse 
Urania (Hes. fr. 97, Goetl.). It was said that he was killed 
by Apollo, who was jealous of his fame as a musician. The 
Greeks had a melancholy strain which they named from him 
Linus and Ailinus. See Hesiod as above, and Homer II. 
xviii. 570. Pausanias (ix. 29, 6.) tells us, that as one ascended 
to the grove of the Muses on Helicon, he would come to a 
statue of Linus in a niche cut into a little rock, and that every 
year, previous to the sacrifice to the Muses, they made offer- 
ings of the dead before it. We thus see why the poet asso- 
ciates Linus with the Muses. Another reason is that Gallus 



86 BUCOLICS. 

was a writer of elegies, and therefore Linus was his suitable 
patron. — dicino carmine, with a divine song, i. e. who sang 
divinely.— pastor. There is no tradition of Linus being a 
shepherd ; but as the poem is bucolic, and Hesiod and Gallus 
are shepherds, it was no great licence to make Linus one also. 
— 68. apio amaro, parsley. Victors at the Nemeaean games, 
which were instituted to commemorate the death of Arche- 
morus, were crowned with this plant, which therefore formed 
a suitable garland for Linus. — 70. Ascraeo sent. Hesiod, a 
native of the Boeotian village of Ascra at the foot of Helicon. 
He calls him old, not on account of his years, but of the length 
of time that had elapsed since he flourished. Thus Horace 
uses senex of Lucilius (S. ii. 1, 34), and of Pacuvius and 
Accius (or perhaps Euripides and Sophocles), Ep. ii. ], 56. 
— 71. rigidas deducere omos. Like Orpheus, but Hesiod 
himself boasts not of any such power. — 72. His tibi, etc. 
With these you will sing the legend of the origin of the 
Gryneian grove in so high a strain, that there will be no one 
of his sacred groves in which Apollo will take such pride. 
The legend, Servius says, was the slaying of a serpent by the 
god ; perhaps similar to the legend of Delphi. 

74-81. Quid loquar. These are the words of the poet, not 
of Silenus. — ut, sc. narraverit, from v. 78. It was a common 
practice with the ancient poets to suspend the sense in this 
manner. Thus in Hor. S. i. 4, 63, the nominative to sit is hoc 
genus scribendi in v. 65. The Med. MS. for ut reads aut. — 
Scyllam Nisi. In Grecian mythology we meet with two 
persons of the name of Scylla, the one the daughter of Nisus 
king of Megara, who falling in love with Minos, king of 
Crete, cut off her father's golden lock of hair, on which the 
safety of himself and his realm depended. When Minos, in 
abhorrence of her treachery, threw her into the sea, she was 
changed into the bird named Ciris. The other Scylla was a 
monster described by Homer in the Odyssey, which took six 
of the crew out of Ulysses' ship as it was passing under her 
den. We may observe that Virgil here confounds the two. 
The same, as the critics observe, was done by some other 
Latin writers, for the Greek mythology being to them a sub- 



eclogue vi. 68-83. 87 

ject of which they had their knowledge only from books, it 
was natural enough that they should fall sometimes into the 
error of supposing persons with the same name to be identical. 
We are to recollect that they had no classical dictionaries 
or such-like assistants. — 75. Candida, etc. The Homeric 
Scylla ( Whelp) was so named as her tones were like those of 
a whelp (<nc\v\at,) ; she had six heads and twelve arms. Later 
poets (whom Virgil seems here to follow) fabled that she had 
been a beautiful maiden, whose lower extremities Circe, by 
her magic arts, changed into those of a fish, with the heads of 
sea-dogs round her waist. — 76. Dulichias vexasse rates. Voss 
observes that there are two mistakes here ; for Ulysses did not 
rule over Dulichium, which was one of the Echinades, and he 
had but one ship when he passed by Scylla. — 78. Aut ut mu- 
tates, etc. He also sung the transformation of Tereus, Procne, 
and Philomela. According to, we believe, all Greek autho- 
rities, Procne, the wife of Tereus, was changed into a night- 
ingale ; and Philomela her sister, whose tongue had been cut 
out, into the twittering swallow ; but the Latins, perhaps on 
account of the name Philomela (song-loving), made the latter 
the nightingale. In the Georgics (iv. 51 1,) Virgil follows this 
view ; here he speaks only of the transformation of Tereus. — 
79. Quas, etc., sc. the flesh of his son Itys. According to the 
story, it was Procne, not Philomela, that served him up that 
food. Perhaps Virgil makes Philomela the wife. — 80. deserta 
petiverit, sc. Tereus. — ante, sc. before he sought the desert. 
The position of ante does not allow of its being joined with 
tecta. 

82-86. In short, says the poet, Silenus sang all the legends 
that Phoebus used to sing on the banks of the Eurotas in 
Laconia for his favourite Hyacinthus. In the usual poetic 
manner, animating all nature, he says that the Eurotas heard 
the strains and desired the bay-trees that grew on his banks 
to commit them to memory, in order that he might hear them 
again whenever he pleased. — meditante, see on i. 2. — beatus, 
blessed, happy, in hearing the strains of the god. — 83. laurus. 
This is the reading of the Medicean MS., and adopted by 
Voss, Wagner and Forbiger. The ordinary reading is lauros, 



88 



BUCOLICS. 



which Jahn retains. — 84-. pulsae, etc., the vales re-echo to the 
skies the song of Silenus. — 85. Cogere donee, etc. He sung on 
till the evening star warned the two shepherds that it was time 
for them to drive their sheep home to the cotes and count them. 
The critics, who suppose Chromis and Mnasylos to be satyrs, 
understand^ffsfores in general after jussit. — 86. invito Olympo, 
the sky itself was unwilling to lose the strains of Silenus. 

Observations. 

Date. — The date of this eclogue also is uncertain, but proba- 
bility is in favour of that of 712-14-. 

Subject. — The narrative of the historian Theopompus, 
which we have noticed above (on v. 18), was probably known 
to our poet, and the idea may have presented itself that a 
pleasing poem might be formed by putting into verse the 
supposed responses of the god, and, as the more poetic and 
agreeable mode, he resolved to give them a continuous form. 
He had an example of this kind of poetic song in that of 
Orpheus in the Argouautics, which he afterwards imitated in 
his Aeneis ; and the taking and binding of Proteus when 
asleep by Mcnelaus, in the Odyssey, which he imitated in the 
Georgics, suggested to him the mode in which he conducts 
the action of the piece. It is commonly supposed that he 
meant it to be a kind of exposition of the Epicurean system 
of cosmology, of which sect himself and the Varus to whom 
it is dedicated were followers ; but to us there seems no ne- 
cessity for this supposition. The poet, as we have said, had 
the song of Orpheus in view, from which his account of cre- 
ation only differs by his employment of the Epicurean terms 
which he derived from his constant perusal of the poem of 
Lucretius. That Virgil himself was a follower of that philo- 
sophy is made probable by some passages of the Georgics. 

Characters. — Chromis and Mnasylos answer to Menelaus 
and his companion, and Aegle to the sea-goddess Eidothea 
of the Odyssey. Analogy would therefore lead us to suppose 
that those were two shepherds, in agreement with the narra- 
tive in Theopompus. They are throughout called pueri, the 
usual term for swains (i. 46. iii. Ill), and v, 85 may much 



ECLOGUE VI. 89 

more naturally be referred to them than to shepherds in ge- 
neral. Martyn, following Lord Roscommon, is of this opinion, 
and he very sensibly observes on v. 20, " They were rather 
young shepherds than satyrs ; for if they were satyrs, they 
would not have been so much afraid of Silenus ;" and on v. 24, 
" According to Servius the demigods were visible only when 
they thought fit. If this be the case, Chromis and Mnasylos 
must have been shepherds ; for surely Silenus was always 
visible to the satyrs." We may here be allowed to observe, 
that we had adopted this view long before we read Martyn's 
notes. Heyne and all the succeeding commentators adopt the 
opinion of Servius, that they were two young satyrs. He 
adds, that they represented Virgil himself and Varus, while 
Silenus was their master Syro ; " quibus ideo," he adds, " con- 
jungit puellam, ut ostendat plenam sectam Epicuream, quae 
nihil sine voluptate vult esse perfectum." 

Of Cornelius Gallus we have spoken in his Life. It is very 
doubtful who Varus was. He is only mentioned in this place 
and in the ninth eclogue, from which it appears that he was a 
person of influence and was employed in the service of the 
Triumvirs in Cisalpine Gaul, and favourably disposed to our 
poet. The most probable supposition is that he was Alfenus 
Varus, who, as Servius tells us, was set over Cisalpine Gaul by 
Octavianus, when Pollio had been driven out of it during the 
Perusian Avar. For the fact of his having been our poet's 
fellow-student, see Life of Virgil. 

Scenery. — From the mention of the cavern (v. 1 3) we may 
infer that we have here the same ideal scenery as in most of 
the other eclogues. 



90 



Eclogue VII. — Meliboeus. 



Argument. 



While the shepherd Meliboeus was occupied in securing his 
myrtles from the cold, his goats strayed away. As he was 
going in search of them he saw three shepherds, Daphnis, 
Corydon and Thyrsis, sitting under a tree ; and Daphnis, call- 
ing to him, told him his flock was safe, and asked him to come 
and witness a musical contest between Corydon and Thyrsis. 
Though, as he says, he had more serious business to occupy 
him, he complied, and he here relates the contest of the swains. 

Notes. 

1-5. arguta Mice, the whispering holm-oak, whose leaves 
and branches emitted a light sound when gently moved by the 
breeze. Thus we have argutum nemus, viii. 22. This cir- 
cumstance (if arguta be not merely an epitheton ornans) seems 
to indicate that it was the spring-time. — consederat, and not 
considerate is the reading of all the good MSS. Perhaps in 
using this word the poet may have meant to indicate that 
Corydon and Thyrsis were sitting with Daphnis. Cf. v. 3. — 
Daphnis. It is quite ridiculous to suppose, with Servius, that 
this is the Daphnis of the fifth eclogue. — 2. in unum, sc. lo- 
cum. — 3. distentas, sc. libera. — 4. aetatibus, for the singular 
aetate. The Latins had great pleasure in thus employing the 
plural for the singular of abstract nouns. See Zumpt, § 92. — 

V. 1. Aapoiras /cat Adtyvis 6 fScoKoXos eis eva ^ibpov 

Tdv ayeXav 7ro/c', "Apare, crvvdyayov, fjs S' 6 Liev avriov 
Hvppos, o S' j//xtytj'etos' 67rt Kpavav Se riv djitpio 
'EcSdfievoi 9epeos [levy dpiari rotdS' deioov. — Theocr. vi. 1. 
AcHpvidi rep xapievri ovvijvTeTO j6wKo\eovri 
MdXa ve/iLov, ws <pavri, /car' copea fiaicpd MevdXicas. 

"AflQlO TIOJ T\TK\V TiVppOTpiX^h djA(pU) dvdj3(t), 

"Apiipio TvpiaSev cefj<xi]p:evio, uLicpoj deiSev. — Id. viii. 1. 



ECLOGUE VII. 1-6. 91 

Arcades ambo. When the scene of the eclogue is laid, as it 
apparently is, in Cisalpine Gaul (see v. 13), it seems very- 
strange that the poet should call these two shepherds Arca- 
dians. Voss, who will everywhere in poetry find historic ac- 
curacy, supposes that the Arcadians, who were themselves so 
fond of music, taught it to their slaves also, and that some of 
these slaves being sold to the Romans thus carried their art 
into Italy. Or he thinks (though history is silent on it) that 
Mummius on the taking of Corinth sold Arcadians as well as 
Corinthians, and that our two swains were of their descendants. 
We rather think, in consequence of the celebrated passage 
in Polybius (iv. 20) describing the. law of Arcadia for the 
cultivation of music and its softening and humanising effects 
on the manners of the people, that among the educated classes 
at Rome, for whom alone Virgil wrote, the term Arcadian may 
have been in use to signify one skilled in song, or rather per- 
haps in extemporary versification like the modern improvisa- 
tori. We need hardly add that this is all mere conjecture. 
It would seem as if it was this place and the tenth eclogue 
that gave origin to the modern ideas of Arcadian bucolic life 
and manners, so like the golden age, so unlike the Arcadia 
of history and reality. Sannazzaro, in his prose romance of the 
Arcadia, seems to have been the immediate origin of these 
modern notions. — 5. Et cantare, etc., skilled in amoebseic 
song. Possibly cantare is used to express the singing of the 
first in a contest of this kind ; and resjwndere, the response of 
the second. 

6-13. Hue, hitherwards, in the direction of the tree under 
which the three swains were sitting. — dum defendo, whilst I 
am engaged in securing my myrtles against the cold by put- 
ting straw about them. See Plin. xvii. 2. This also indicates 
the spring, as it was then that the myrtles were in danger of 
being nipt by the night-frosts ; unless we suppose Virgil in his 
eclogues to have been heedless of the order of nature. The 
difficulty which Servius and many of the moderns have seen 
in this passage, and which they have endeavoured to get rid 
of by alteration of the text or by strained interpretations, arose 
from their confounding this introduction with the following 



92 BUCOLICS. 

amcebaeic song, forgetting that in songs of this kind the 
singers drew from their imagination, and sung the charms or 
the occupations of any season they pleased without any regard 
to the actual one. The poet has defendo in the present, in- 
stead of defendebam, to make the narrative more vivid. See 
Zumpt, § 506. — 7. Vir, i. e. maritus. *£h rpdye rav Xevtcdv 
alytSv avep, Theoc. viii. 49. Cf. Hor. C. i. 17, 7. — ipse, the 
buck himself, to whom I had given the flock, as it were, in 
charge, had strayed and led with him the rest : see v. 9. — 
deerraverat, the first syllable is contracted, as in Lucretius (iii. 
873), Deerrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes, and else- 
where. A similar contraction is the common one of deerat. — 
atquc, sc. when he is going in search of his flock. — 8. Ille ubi 
me, etc. It would appear that Daphnis, who knew that Meli- 
boeus' goats had strayed, guessed when he saw him what his 
errand was. — 9. caper et haedi. See on v. 7. — 10. quid, i. e. 
aliquid tempus. — cessare, i.e.otiari. — 11. Hue ipsi potum, etc., 
' the cattle will come hither of themselves to water.' These 
could hardly have been those of Daphnis, as Voss asserts ; 
neither is there any reason for supposing them to have be- 
longed to Meliboeus. It seems most simple, with Forbiger, 
to suppose the coming of the cattle to drink to be an agree- 
able sight in the eyes of shepherds, and therefore used as an 
inducement by Daphnis. If a painter were making a picture 
of the scene of this eclogue, he certainly Avould not omit the 
cattle. — 12. Hie viridis, etc. We think that the critics are 
right in making viridis agree with Mincius, and not with ripas, 
as giving a much more novel and picturesque image. It is 
like the rio verde, rio verde, of the Spanish ballad. — tenera, 
tender, weak, that yields to the impulse of every breeze, and 
can be bruised by any slight force. — 13. Mincius, the river 
which flowing from the Alps forms a lake round Mantua, and 
then passes on to join the Po — sacra quercu. The oak was 
sacred, as every one knows, to Jupiter: it cannot be the same 
with the ilex under which they were sitting, and it therefore 
forms another feature in the landscape. — examina, swarms, 

V. 13. T Gc>e icaXov fiofiftevvn ttoti <Tjxavca<u fiektoaai. — Theoc. v. 46. 



ECLOGUE VII. 7-21. 93 

quasi exagmina, as being driven or led out of the hives. This 
also indicates springtime. 

14-20. Quidfacerem? etc. 'What was I to do in this case? 
I had no one to attend to my business at home, and yet there 
was a contest here such as may not often be witnessed.' — 
Alcippen neque Phyllida. Forbiger, following Servius, says 
that these were the mistresses of Corydon and Thyrsis, who 
attended to affairs at home, and thus gave them leisure to 
amuse themselves ; and therefore Meliboeus means he had no 
one like them to attend to his affairs. Voss thinks that they 
were slaves belonging to Meliboeus. Perhaps they were his 
fellow-servants, and his meaning is that, unaware of this con- 
test, he had not given them any directions about the lambs. — , 

15. Depidsos a lacte. See on i. 22. iii. 82 : a lacte, i. q. a ma- 
tribus. The ewes in Italy usually yeaned in November and 
December (see Palladius, xii. 13), and the lambs were weaned 
when four months old : another indication of the spring. — 

16. Et certamen, etc. And there was a great contest, even 
that of Corydon with Thyrsis, two such distinguished singers. 
— 17. ludo. See on i. 10. — 19. alternos, Musae, meminisse vo- 
lebant. There is much difficulty about this passage, of which 
even in the time of Servius there were two readings, some 
copies having volebant, others volebam. Voss, who adopts the 
latter, says that volebam is for vellem, as in i. 80, poteras is for 
posses ; to which Wagner objects that vellem denotes the wish 
for what one has not, whereas Meliboeus seems to have re- 
membered a good deal. Adopting the reading of volebant, 
which is undoubtedly the right one, Wunderlich says that 
meminisse is i. q. aggredi tractate, like the Greek jieixvijadai. 
The most simple explanation seems to be that of Heyne, that 
as the poets represented themselves as taught by the Muses, 
they might justly say that they remembered what they had 
been taught. Me is therefore to be understood after memi- 
nisse. — 20. in ordine, in the established amcebseic order. 

21-28. Corydon commences the contest by an invocation 
of the Muses, whom he terms the Libethrian nymphs, from 
the fountain Libethrum on Mount Helicon, or from a more 
ancient fountain of the same name in Pieria. For the proofs 



94 BUCOLICS. 

of the Muses being anciently regarded as water-nymphs, see 
Mythology, p. 1S9. — noster amor, my love, i. e. the objects of 
my love. Cf. i.57. ii. 65. x. 22.-22. Codro. This is probably 
here, as in v. 11, simply the name of a shepherd. But see on 
v. 26.—proxima, sc. carmina, from the preceding carmen. 
Thus Aen. viii. 427> Fulmen erat toto Genitor quae plu- 
rima caelo Dejicit. Burmann, as Forbiger here observes, has 
shown on Quinctilian, ix. 2. that the plural often refers to a 
preceding singular. It is thus that Servius, followed by most 
interpreters, understands the passage. Heyne and Wagner, 
however, suppose proxima to be taken absolutely for the adv. 
proxime. We think the former interpretation much to be pre- 
ferred. — 23. Versibus, a dat. — si non possumus omnes, if we 
all cannot make such verses as Codrus. — 24. Hie, etc. I will 
resign my art. It was customary for those who retired from 
the exercise of any art or profession to hang up the instru- 
ments belonging to it in the temple of the deity who presided 
over it. See Hor. Carm. iii. 26, 3. Ep. i. 1, 5. — arguta pinu. 
See on v. 1. The pine was sacred to Cybele, but it was also 
sacred to Pan. Ov. Met. i. 699. Mythology, p. 232. It is 
evidently the latter deity that is meant here. — 25. Thyrsis, 
instead of invoking some other deity, as would seem to have 
been the usual custom (see iii. 62), calls on his fellow-swains 
to crown him as the superior of Codrus. — nascentem poetam, 
the rising poet, he who has just begun to make verses, i. e. 
Thyrsis himself. Nascentem is the reading of Servius and of 
the Med. MS. a priore manic, and is adopted by Voss, Wagner 
and Forbiger. The ordinaiy reading, crescentem (which has the 
air of a gloss), is followed by Heyne and Jahn. — hedera : poets 
as being followers of Bacchus were crowned with ivy. See 

Hor. C. i. 1, 29. Ov. Met. v. 338. Fast. v. 79 26. Arcades: 

see on v. 4. — rumpantur ut ilia Codro, that Codrus may burst 
with envy. We have the corresponding expression, burst the 
sides, but we use it only of laughter. From the mention of 
the envy of Codrus it has been attempted to identify him with 
a real person ; for Dousa in his Auctorium to Cruquius's 
Commentary on Horace, p. 694, when speaking of the Hiar- 
bita, who, the poet says (Ep. i. 19, 15) burst with envy or 



eclogue vii. 22-33. 95 

emulation of Timagenes, observes, "Nam hie Hiarbita Maurus 
regione fuit Cordus qui," etc. ; and hence Weichert (Poet. 
Lat. Reliq., p. 402) infers that Cordus was, like Bavius and 
Maevius, an enemy of our poet, who has here a blow at him 
even though he was then dead. We do not by any means 
adopt this opinion. — 27- ultra placitum, that is, beyond what 
pleases him, beyond what he really thinks I merit. Excessive 
praise was considered to be a kind of fascination. — bacchare : 
see iv. 19. This plant was held to be efficacious against 
witchcraft and fascination. — 28. vatifuturo, the poeta nascens 
of v. 25. 

29-37. The rival bards now try their skill in the com- 
position of epigrams, or inscriptions for the statues of gods. 
Corydon commences with one to Diana, in the person of a 
young hunter named Micon, who offers to her, or hangs up 
in her honour, the head of a wild-boar and the antlers of a 
stag. — Delia, as being born with her brother Apollo in the 
isle of Delos. — parvus, probably on account of his youth. — 
30. vivacis. The stag was considered by the ancients to be 

peculiarly long-lived 31. Si proprium hocfuerit. By hoc is 

meant his success in hunting, which was, by a common prac- 
tice of the ancients, understood to be implied in what pre- 
cedes ; proprium signifies lasting, so as to become as it were 
one's own property. Propria haec si dona fuissent, Aen. vi. 
872. — levi de mar-more, etc. I -will have a statue of smooth or 
polished marble made of you, on which the buskins, which as 
the huntress-goddess she wore, would be coloured red. It 
was a common practice of the ancients to colour parts even 
of marble statues. — 32. evincta, to denote the tight lacing of 
the well-fitting buskin. — 33. Thyrsis, in reply, makes an epi- 
gram for a statue of Priapus, the god and keeper of gardens. 
— Sinam. The sinus was a large wine-bowl, so called, says 
Varro (L. L. v. 123), " a sinu quod majorem cavationem quam 
pocula habebant." Sinus or sinum is derived from sinuo, to 
bend, to hollow, and originally signified anything hollowed : 
hence we meet the sinus of the toga. — liba. The libum was a 
cake made of flour, cheese and eggs. Cato (R. R. 75) gives 
the following receipt for making it : " Bray two pounds of 



96 BUCOLICS. 

cheese well in a mortar; when it is well brayed, add a pound 
of spelt-flour, or if you wish it to be lighter, only half-a- 
pound: mix it well with the cheese: add an egg, and mix 
them well together ; then make the bread : put leaves under 
it : bake it gently on the hot hearth under an earthen pot." 
Athenaeus' account of the libum is as follows (iii. p. 125): 
TIXcikovs e« yaXcacros irpiwv re kclI [xeXtros uv 'Poj/xaloi Xijoov 
KaXovai. As Irpla (pi.) was a kind of cake, it perhaps stands 
here for the flour and cheese in Cato's receipt. In the liba 
that were offered to Liber on the Iiberalia (Ov. Fast. iii. 735), 
there either was honey, or they were smeared with it (Id. ibid. 
761). Libum (prob. i. q. libatum,) comes from the verb libo, 
as being used in the service of the gods. — 35. marmoreum. 
Thyrsis is resolved to exceed his rival, who makes his Micon 
only promise Diana a marble statue. His Priapus, a god who 
in general was made only in a coarse way out of wood, is 
already marble, and will be gold if he gives increase to the 
flock. — 36. Si fetitra, etc. If the ewes yean well, so that the 
lambs will, as it were, form a new flock. Priapus is here re- 
garded as presiding over flocks. See Mythology, p. 236. — 
aureus esto, i. e. eris, the imperat. for the fut., which, vice 
versa, is often used for the imperat. 

37-4-4. Corydon now, in the character of a Sicilian herds- 
man, and as the lover of the sea-nymph Galatea, calls on her to 
come and visit him in the evening. One might have expected 
to meet here Polyphemus instead of Corydon (see ix. 39), 
but we may recollect that the Corydon of the second eclogue 
is a Sicilian, and that the language and sentiments of the 
Theocritean Polyphemus are given to him. This may have 
secretly operated on the poet's mind when composing these 
lines. — Nerine, for Nereis, a Greek form, which only occurs 
in this place. Galatea was one of the Nereides. — Hyblae. 
See on i. 55. — 38. heclera alba. Cf. iii. 39. — 39. Cum pri- 
mum, etc., i. e. in the evening. — 40. habet, i. q. tenet. Omnis 



V. 37. T Q XevKcl TaXareia, tl tov <pi\eovr' d.TTo(3aXXy ; 
AevKorepa TraKTcis 7roriSiiv, a7raXwrepa dpvos, 
Mo'cxw yavporepa, tyiapwrepa ofKpaKOs upas. — Theoc. xi, 19. 



ECLOGUE VII. 35-48. 97 

simul ardor habet, Aen. iv. 581. Custodes somnus habebat, 
Ov. Met. vii. 329. — venito, like esto, v. 36, imperat. for fat. 
See Zumpt, § 583. — 41. Thyrsis also addresses Galatea. — Sar- 
doniis herbis. This was a kind of crowfoot. See the Flora, s. v. 
— 42. projecta, that is, torn by the waves from the rocks and 
flung on the shore. — 43. Si mihi, etc. As we say the live-long 
(i. e. life-long) day, to express a feeling of the great apparent 
length of a day, the shepherd here compares to the duration 
of a year the time that intervenes before he can meet his be- 
loved nymph in the evening. — -44. lie domum, etc. As even- 
ing was indicated by the oxen leaving the fields and going 
home to the stalls, in his amorous delirium he thinks, as it 
were, to hasten its approach, by inducing the oxen to go home. 
— si quis pudor, if you have any shame ; a common expres- 
sion (see Juv. iii. 154. Mart. ii. 37, 10. Ov. Am. iii. 2, 23), as 
much as to say : You ought to be ashamed of yourselves to 
keep me so long from my love. 

45-52. Corydon now gives a picture of a shady retreat 
from the mid-day heat of summer. — Muscosi fontes, ye mossy 
springs, i. e. ye springs that issue from the moss-grown rock : 
see Hor. Ep. i. 10, 7. ; Catul. lxviii. 68. The plural fontes 
is perhaps used here for the singular, as arbutus (v. 46) ap- 
pears to be used for the plural. — somno mollior. It is imitated 
from the vttvio fiaXaKUTepa of Theocritus (v. 51); the compa- 
rison is taken from the gentle soothing caused by sleep, and 
by the soft velvety grass that grows beside a spring. — 46. 
rara umbra. See on v. 7. — 47. Solstitium, the heat of summer. 
There is no necessity for restricting it to the solstice, which 
causes difficulty and is contrary to the freedom of poetry. — 
defendite. See on v. 6. Though he uses the plural, it was of 
course only the arbutus that could keep off the rays of the sun, 
but the water and the moss would help to keep the flock cool. 
— venit, the burning summer is coming. — 48. jam turgent, etc, 
It is now the month of May, the time when the buds appear on 
the vine-branches. — laeto, joyful, a term poetically applied to 
plants when full of sap and verdure. As the vine puts forth its 
buds before its leaves, and laetus does not seem to him appli- 
cable in that state, Wagner is inclined to adopt the correction 



98 BUCOLICS. 

of the Med. MS. lento ; but this is being somewhat hypercritical. 
— 4-9. Thyrsis changes the scene, and, as a pendent to the 
Claude Lorraine summer landscape of his rival, draws a pic- 
ture in the Dutch style of the comforts of the shepherd's home 
in the winter. — Hie focus, etc. Here is a fire-place and plenty 
of pine-wood for firing, and the door-posts are black with 
the smoke, we keep up such continual fires. — tetedae. See the 
Flora. — 50. postes nigri. The ancients had no chimneys in 
their houses, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the 
roof or out of the doors ; the former chiefly in the atria of 
the rich, the latter in the tuguria of the peasantry. As Thyr- 
sis had described his fir-wood as being unctuous (pingues), it 
of course produced more soot than other kinds of wood, which 
adhered to the door-posts. — 51. Hie, etc. We here set the 
north-wind at defiance. — 52. numcrum. The wolf when going 
to attack the sheep cares not how many there be, he fears 
them not. 

53-60. Corydon now, in accordance with that law of our 
nature by which the mind gives its own colouring to external 
objects (see Crabbe's poem of The Lover's Journey), describes 
the effect of the presence of a beautiful youth, Alexis, on the 
rural landscape, or rather on the mind of himself — Stant, i. q. 
sunt, says Heyne : see on ii.26. But Wagner sees a wider mean- 
ing in it, and holds it to indicate that the trees were laden 
with their fruits, and suspects an opposition to the strata poma 



V. 49. 'Evri Spvbs %v\a juot, cat v— 6 <r7ro£(/J ciicdp.aTov wvp. 

Theocr. xi. 51. 

V. 51 e%w £e roi ove' oaov wpav 

Xeifiaros, f/ vwebs Kapvm>, dfivXoio irdpovros. — Id. is. 20. 

V. 53. M. liav-u cap, Travrd fe vofioi, iravTu 8e ydXaKros- 
OvOara irXrjQovaiv, icai ra via rpe<peTai, 
"EvQ' a KaXA ttcus eiriviaaerai' al d' dv CMpepiry, 
Xw iroifidv %rjpbs th]v60i, %' at fiordvai. 
A. "Evd' fits, ev9' aiyes diBvftaTOKOi, evda /xeXifftrai 
Hfiavea TrXripovaiv, Kai Spies v\pirepai, 
"EvQ' 6 KaXos MiXuv [3aivet iroaiv' al 8' civ d<pepny, 
Xd) rets /3ws j36<XK(ov, %' at (36es avorepai. 

Id. viii. 41. 



eclogue vii. 49-58. 99 

of the next line. Sto, when thus used for sum (whence the 
Italian stare, to be), always denotes a certain degree of fixity, 
as in this place and ii. 26, Aen. i. 650. x. 467? and elsewhere. 
So also stant lumina flamma, Aen. vi. 300, is, ' his eyes are 
flaming'; the idea of rigidity and sternness being included : 
the same is the case with the stat sentihiC fundus of Lucilius. 
— The final vowels of juniperi and castaneae on which the 
arsis falls, we may observe are not elided. This is in imita- 
tion of the Greeks. — 54. sua quaeque. This is the reading of 
all the MSS. and of Nonius. Heinsius, Gronovius (ad Liv. 
iii. 22) and Bentley {ad Manil. ii. 253) proposed sua quaqite, 
which reading is adopted by Heyne, Wagner and Forbiger, 
while Voss and Jahn retain that of the MSS. If this is the 
true reading, sua is an ablative case contracted by the figure 
synizesis after the example of Ennius (see Festus, v. sos) and 
Lucretius. Thus the former says, Postquam lumina sis 
(suis) oculis bonus Ancus reliquit, which line slightly altered 
the latter has adopted (iii. 1038). Lucretius also (i. 1021) 
has Ordine se suo quaeque sagaci mente locarunt. When we 
recollect that Virgil was a great student of these two poets, 
and was fond of archaisms, we need not be surprised at his 
employing a synizesis here. Forbiger, who is not adverse to 
this reading, gives the following instances of the employment 
of the synizesis and the episynaloepha by our poet ; Buc. iii. 
96 ; vi. 30 ; viii. 81 ; Geor. i. 482 ; iv. 34, 350 ; Aen. i. 726 ; vi. 
33 ; vii. 190 ; x. 487.-55. rident. See on iv. 20.— 56. Monti- 
bus his. This proves, if it were necessary, that the scenery of 
the alternate songs has no relation to that of the place where 
the shepherds are singing. — et jiumina, the very streams 
themselves, not merely the trees, will be dried up. — 57. Thyr- 
sis pursues the subject, taking the opposite side of the picture. 
— Aret ager, the land is burnt up with the heat of summer. 
— vitio aeris, like morbo caeli, Geor. iii. 479 : it here seems 
only to denote extreme drought. — 58. Liber, the Italian god, 
answering to the Dionysus or Bacchus of the Greeks. — invi- 
dit, the Greek Qdovel, in the sense of denying, refusing, with 
a bad or malignant motive understood. Liber refuses the 

f2 



100 BUCOLICS. 

vine-shades to the hills ; that is, the vines are without foliage 
in consequence of the drought. — 60. Juppiter, etc. Jupiter is 
used here for the heaven or sky, as in the line of Ennius, 
Aspice hoc sublime candens quern invocant omnes Jovem. Cf. 
Geor. i. 41S ; ii. 4-19 ; Hor. Carm. i. 1, 25 ; 22, 19 ; Ov. Met. 
iv. 260 ; Fast. ii. 299. Theocritus says (iv. 43), X' w Zeis 
iiWoKci f.iev n-eXet aWpios, clXKoku 2' vei. — plurimus, very abun- 
dant. The Greek and Latin and most other languages use 
the superlative thus, without any immediate comparison. 
Elsewhere our poet has mix plurima, Geor. i. 187; Italia plu- 
rima, ii. 166 ; plurimus oleaster, ii. 1 82 ; plurima unda, iv.419. 
— lacto, joyous, joy-giving, from the effect. 

61-69. Corydon now enumerates some of the trees sacred 
to the gods, and declares the hazel, because the favourite of 
Phyllis, to be equal to any of them. The white poplar was 
sacred to Alcides or Hercules, because, when he descended 
to Hades to fetch up the dog Cerberus, he bound his brows 
with this plant. lacchus or Bacchus of course loved the vine ; 
Venus, as sprung from the sea, the myrtle, which flourishes 
best on its shores ; Phoebus the bay, into which his Daphne 
had been changed. — 65. Thyrsis as before continues the train 
of thought ; and as, when Corydon had spoken of a favourite 
youth, he celebrated a maiden, so he now reverses it. From 
the nature of amcebasic poetry Ave may see that the Phyllis 
of Corydon is different from the Phyllis of Thyrsis, v. 59, and 
this does away with the apparent necessity for the transpo- 
sition of stanzas which some critics thought they saw. — QQ. 
injluviis, on the banks of the streams ; for adfluvios. Surgat 
et in solis formosius arbutus antris, Propert. i. 2, 11. — 68. tibi. 
As Voss justly observes, we might have expected the compa- 
rison to be with his favourite tree, and not with himself. 
Though Heyne says he cannot perceive it, we think the cri- 
tics are right who suppose the poet to have intended to make 
Thyrsis throughout inferior to Corydon. 

69, 70. Meliboeus concludes by mentioning that Corydon 
was the victor. — 70. Ex Mo (sc. die) etc. Voss says this is, 
' Henceforth Corydon is Corydon for me,' i. e. a capital poet. 



ECLOGUE VII. 



101 



Wagner, 'Henceforth Corydon, Corydon is my man' (as we 
commonly say, ' the man for my money ') : we rather prefer 
this last interpretation. 

Observations. 

Date. This eclogue offering no internal evidence, its date 
can be only conjectural. The spring of the year 71 4-1 6 is 
the date assigned to it by the critics. 

Subject. — As Theocritus had made the poetic contests of 
swains the subject of more than one Idyll, Virgil would vie 
with him in this also. He seems to have had that poet's 
eighth Idyll chiefly in view, but the circumstance of making 
the person who witnessed the contest be the narrator of it 
appears to have been suggested by the ninth Idyll. The 
eclogue is, taken altogether, a very pleasing composition, and 
the parts of the contending swains are well sustained. 

Characters. — The actors in this little piece being all repre- 
sented as shepherds or goatherds, they must, as we have shown 
in our Observations on the first eclogue, have been slaves. 

Scenery. — The mention of the river Mincius, in v. 13 would 
seem to place the scene in Virgil's native country ; while on 
the opposite side Castelvetro, a critic of the 16th century 
(Opere Critiche, p. 151), asserts that neither the ilex (v. 1.), 
the chestnut (53), nor the pine (24), is to be seen in the terri- 
tory of Mantua, and he adds that the same is the case with 
respect to flocks of goats, which are not kept in that country. 
This testimony is of the more weight as this writer was a native 
of Modena. We ourselves saw, when there, no goats and none 
of those trees. Martyn however replies, that Virgil could not 
be ignorant of the trees that grew in his own neighbourhood. 
He then quotes Ray, whose authority in this case, he says, 
is worth that of a hundred grammarians, to prove that the 
ilex is common in most of the provinces of Italy. Ray's words 
are : " In Hetruria aliisque Italiae provinciis praesertim ad 
mare inferum, inque Gallia Narbonensi et Hispania in silvis 
collides et campestribus maritimis, passim et copiose provenit 
(ilex)." From the words which we have put in italics, he 
would seem to have intended to exclude the plain of the Po. 



102 BUCOLICS. 

Martyn further quotes Ray to prove that the pine and the 
chestnut abound in Italy, and no one doubts it ; but Ray does 
not say that they grow in Lombardy. He also quotes Mat- 
tioli, an Italian botanist, to prove that the juniper is common 
in Italy, but the place that writer mentions is Tuscany, espe- 
cially Siena. 

The simple fact seems to be, that the scenery here as else- 
where is ideal, though the poet, for some reason of which we 
are ignorant, chose to introduce the Mincius by name, just as 
he chooses to call his swains Arcadians. As for the trees 
named in their amcebaeic strains, see the Observations on the 
third eclogue. 



Eclogue VIII. — Piiarmaceutria. 



Argument. 



The poet relates the songs of two contending shepherds, 
Damon and Alphesiboeus. The former sings the last com- 
plaint and the voluntary death of a jilted shepherd ; the latter 
the magic arts to which a deserted fair one has recourse in 
order to win back her fickle lover. 

Notes. 

1-5. dhtsam, the song: see i. 2. — 2. juvenca, the heifer, 
sing, for plur., in the usual manner of the poets, owing gene- 
rally to the constraint of the verse. — 3. stupefactae, the Greek 
dajjijDovaaL. — carmine. Some MSS. have carmina, whence, as 
stupefaetus always takes the ablative, Wagner conjectures the 
original reading to have been ad carmina. But as there is 
no trace of ad in any MS., and the sense is very good as it is, 
we cannot adopt this reading. — lynces. The lynx was unknown 
in Italy, but Xenophon (De Ven. xi,) says it was to be found 
in Mount Pindus, and there is some reason for thinking that 
the scene of this eclogue is in Thessaly. The poets however, 



ECLOGUE VIII. 1-6. 103 

as we have already observed, did not attend to these minutise : 
see on ii. 63. The lynxes here stand for wild beasts in ge- 
neral. — Et muiata suos, etc. The meaning of this verse 
seems to be : 'and the streams changing (their nature) checked 
their currents (to listen).' The Venetian edition reads mirata, 
and Wagner proposes morata for mutata ; but there is no neces- 
sity for any change. It is also disputed whether requierunt is 
transitive or intransitive. The former we believe, for both 
Calpurnius and the author of the Ciris seem to have so under- 
stood it. The latter says, v. 232, Rapidos... requierunt fiumina 
■cursus : the former thus imitates it (ii. 15), Et tenuere suos pro- 
perantia Jlumina cursus. Jacobs (on Propert. iii. 15) under- 
stands by flumina the river-gods, who brought their streams 
nearer to the place where the singers were, and there rested on 
their urns enraptured with the song. This is altogether fan- 
ciful, and we doubt if the neuter noun flumen ever stands for 
the river-god. With respect to the whole of the effects here 
ascribed to song, we think the poet has been rather bold in 
assigning them to the lays of simple swains ; though to gods, 
such as Apollo and Silenus, or the sons of gods as Orpheus 
and Amphion, they are suitable enough. — 5. Damonis Musam, 
etc. The repetition here of the first verse is very happy. 

6-13. Tu, sc. Asinius Poilio. It is somewhat remarkable 
that the poet does not mention the name of the person to whom 
the eclogue is dedicated ; for it was the usual practice of the 
poets, instead of putting the name of the person to whom they 
addressed their works at the head of them, to introduce them 
somewhere in the body of the piece. We may instance the 
odes of Horace, each of which contains the name of the per- 
son to whom it is addressed. The inscriptions, as they are 
called, are not the work of the poet, but belong to ancient 
critics and editors. Virgil probably considered that the fol- 
lowing verses so plainly indicated Poilio, that it was needless 
to insert his name.— mihi. This is what is termed the ethic 
dative, which denotes the interest the person who uses it has 
or takes in the matter of which he is speaking. Heyne, Voss 
and others would connect it with accipe in v. 11 ; but Wagner 
thinks this too remote, and therefore would join it with 



104 BUCOLICS. 

superas. Heyne, in his earlier editions, followed the usual 
practice of placing a comma after mild, and we know not if 
this is not the better principle, supposing the poet to have 
meant to employ some other verb, and then to have been 
carried away by his enthusiasm and to have neglected it. — 
sen magni, etc. 'Whether you are now passing the mouth of 
the Timavus (i. e. sailing by it) or have not come so far yet, 
but are still going along the coast of Illyria.' See the Life 
of Pollio. — superas. This may be understood of passing the 
river by land ; but as there is no reason to suppose that Pollio 
would land his troops at such a distance from Rome and send 
his ships away empty, it is better to understand superare, as 
in Aen. i. 244, and Liv. xxx. 39, of sailing past it. — saxa 
Timavi: see Aen. i. 244. Heyne thus describes the Timavo at 
the present day: "In Carnorum finibus {Carniola) inter 
Aquileiam et Tergeste {Trieste), qui tractus totus saxeus et 
scopulosus est, apud vicum S. Joannis, non longe a castello 
Duino (Tyicein), complures (modo septem modo novem nu- 
merantur) ingentesque inter rupium antra aquarum fontes pro- 
siliunt, qui post brevem cursum in unum flumen coeunt, 
quod vix mille passuum viam emensum latum altumque uno 
ostio in mare exit." — 7- en erit unquam: see on i. 68. — 8. facta, 
your military exploits. — 10. cannina, the tragedies which 
Pollio had composed, which he here compares with those of 
Sophocles. The poet is merely expressing a wish or hope 
that at some future period he might be able to devote his 
powers to the celebration of the deeds and the literary pro- 
ductions of Pollio. It is perhaps only a compliment, for he 
does not appear to have formed any serious design of doing 
so. — cothurno, the tragic buskin, put for tragedy. — 11. Ate 
principium, sc. sumit Musa mea. This omission is a poetic 
artifice, expressing eagerness and commotion of mind. — 12. 
Carmina coepta. This either means that Pollio had required 
him to write bucolic poetry in general, or had given him the 
subject of this particular eclogue. The latter is the more 
probable, as poems were usually sent separately to the persons 
to whom they were addressed.— -jussis. The verb jubeo is used 
to express all degrees of causing a thing to be clone, from 



ECLOGUE VIII. 6-16. 105 

simply asking up to commanding : in this place tua jussa 
mean only ' your desire.' — 13. Inter victrices, etc. Let this 
branch of poetic ivy creep through the laurels with which 
victory has wreathed your brows. — hedera : see on vii. 25. — 
serpere. This verb is frequently used, even in prose, of plants 
like the ivy, that advance gradually along the ground or up 
the stems of other plants. 

14-16. A description of the time of the day and of the atti- 
tude of the shepherd when he begins his song. — Frigida, etc., 
the early morn, the twilight, just before the rising of the 
sun (see v. 17), not after sunrise, as Heyne says. — umbra. 
Virgil frequently uses this word to express the gloom of night. 
Perhaps the adjective frigida (like gelida, Aen. xi. 210), is 
here added to indicate the great coldness of the air just before 
sunrise. — 15. Cum ros, etc. This beautiful verse was pro- 
bably a favourite with our poet, for he repeats it, Geor, iii. 
326. As it was the custom to drive the cattle out to pasture 
before sunrise (see Geor. iii. 322 seq.), we are to suppose the 
shepherd Damon, after driving his flock afield, to have stood 
by them resting on his crook and meditating on the subject 
of his song. — 16. tereti olivae, his smooth or polished crook 
of olive-wood. J. Warton, in his translation of this eclogue, 
says, "Against an olive's trunk reclined;" and Marty n, " lean- 
ing against a round olive tree." The words may no doubt 
thus be rendered, but surely no one who had ever looked 
on an olive with its rugged gnarled stem, would dream of ap- 
plying the epithet teres to it. It would also, we apprehend, 
not be easy to find an olive against which one could recline 
commodiously. On the other hand, the shepherd's crook was 
frequently made of the wild olive. Apollonius Rhodius (ii. 
34), describing one, says it was made opirpofeos kotIvoio, and 
Theocritus (vii. 18) says of a shepherd poimv & exev aypteXcu'w 
Ae&repj. ko^vvclv. In Ovid's description of the pastoral attire 
of Apollo (Met. ii. 680), the reading of the best MSS. is 
onusquefuit dextrae silvestris oliva. We need hardly mention 
that oliva, like pinus, abies, ferrum, and other names of sub- 
stances, is used for the thing made from it. The custom of 
shepherds resting on their crook is thus alluded to by Ovid 



106 BUCOLICS. 

{Ex Pont. i. 8, 52), Ipse velim baculo pascere nixus oves ; 
and by the author of the Culex, v. 97, Talibus in studiis 
baculo dum niins apricas Pastor agit cttras. Teres (from tero) 
is smooth, polished, but the idea of length and rotundity is 
usually included in it. Horace (S. ii. 7, 86) joins it with 
rotundas, and apparently as speaking of a globe. 

17-21. Damon now, in the person of the despairing shep- 
herd, commences his extemporary song. It is divided into 
parts or stanzas of unequal length, each terminated by an in- 
tercalary verse or burden, after which Ave are led to suppose 
(see above p. 46) that the singer plays a voluntary on his pipe 
while he is thinking on the stanza that is to succeed. In in- 
troducing the burden, Virgil imitates Theocritus in his two 
first Idylls. — Nascere, arise. This employment of the verb, 
properly belonging to the birth or origin of organised beings, 
to the celestial luminaries or phenomena, is not uncommon. 
Elsewhere (Geor. i. 441) he applies it to the sun, and Horace 
(C. iii. 23, 2) to the moon. — praeque, etc. (a tmesis), i. e. prae- 
veniensque age diem, 'and coming before lead on the day;' as 
Milton (Son. i.) says, "While the jolly Hours lead on propi- 
tious May.*' We are aware that the usual sense of ago is to 
drive on before ; but in this case Lucifer, the morning-star, 
must precede the day. Cf. Aen. v. 833.— almum. Almus 
(from alo) is whatever nourishes, gives vigour to anything. 
We thus meet alma lux, Aen. i. 306, and we find this adjec- 
tive employed as an epithet of the deities, Sol, Ceres, Venus, 
Cybele, Phoebe and Juturna, all beings that gave increase. — 

18. Conjugis, i. e. of her who was to have been, or whom he 
had expected to be, his bride. Maritus and gener are also 
used in this anticipative sense. — indigno amore. The love 
here is the pretended love of the faithless maid, which was 
unworthy of the true and sincere affection of the shepherd — 

19. testibus Mis, whom Nisa had so often taken to witness of 
her truth. — 20. extrema hora, sc. vitae, before he terminates 
his existence, as he is resolved to do. — 21. Maenalios, Arca- 
dian (from Mount Maenalus), or simply rural. 

V. 21. "Apxere /3wKo\ucas, Mwtrai tp'ikai, apxer doious. — Theoc. i. 64. 



eclogue viii. 17-27. 107 

22-25. This stanza arises from the word Maenalios in the 
burden. The mind of the singer is thereby carried to Arcadia 
and its woods and mountains. — argutum. See on vii. 1. — pi- 
nos loquentes. This may be understood in two ways, either 
as referring to the whispering of the wind in the trees, and 
therefore nearly a repetition (but not an unusual one) of the 
preceding argutum nemus ; or, vocal with the songs of shep- 
herds, in which sense it is understood by Servius and by Heyne, 
Voss, and the later critics : and in Aen. xi. 458, our poet uses 
stagna loquacia, where it means, the pools made vocal by the 
melody of the swans that haunted them. We feel rather in- 
clined to adopt the first interpretation, and suppose an oppo- 
sition between the natural melody of the woods (the warbling 
of the birds being perhaps included) and that of Pan and the 
shepherds. The pine, it has been observed, does not grow in 
Arcadia, but that is a matter of no consequence. It grows in 
general, we believe, alone or in small groups, and is not at all 
calculated to re-echo the music of swains. — 24. qui primus, etc., 
alluding to his invention of the syrinx : see Mythology, p. 232. 

26-31. datur, sc. nuptum, by her parents.. — <quid non spe- 
remus amantes. The verb sperare, like the Greek eXneadat, is 
not merely to hope, but to expect in general: see on iii. 110, 
for the corresponding use of metuo. The sense is, < What may 
not we lovers expect? the most extraordinaiy unions take 
place.' — 27. Jungentur, etc. He goes on to say, ' We shall soon 
see the griffons submitting to be yoked along with the horses, 
and the next generation will see the deer and the dogs coming 
together to be fed.' We entirely approve of the interpretation 
of jungo here, as of yoking to a car, given by Voss and adopted 
by Wagner and Forbiger. Servius, who adopts that of union 
in matrimony, though he mentions the other interpretation, 
has been followed by interpreters in general.— gryplies. The 
griffons (mentioned by Herodotus, iii. 116) were fabulous ani- 
mals that abode in the Rhipaean mountains, where they kept 
watch over treasures of gold : they had the body of a lion, 
and the head and vrings of an eagle. The poet commits his 
usual fault in putting the mention of them into the mouth of 
a shepherd. — 28. ad pocula, i. e. ad potum. Pocula sunt 



108 BUCOLICS. 

fontes liquidi, Geor. iii. 529. — damae. This word, which 
is usually feminine, Virgil here makes masculine, as he does 
talpa, Geor. i. 183. Quintilian (ix. 3, 6) remarks this license 
of our poet. — 29. novas incide faces, i. e. cut wood to form 
torches, which were, according to custom, to be carried before 
the bride. We do not think, with Heyne, that novas is a mere 
epitheton ornans: everything relating to a marriage was to 
be of the best and newest description. Incide, as Geor. i. 292, 
faces inspicat. — tibi ducitur uxor, ' Your wife is about to be 
brought home to you.' Perhaps with a bitter feeling and irony : 
' You are now a married man ; you have triumphed over me.' — 
30. Sparge, marite, mices, scatter your walnuts (see Plin. xv. 
22) ; according to the custom at Roman marriages of throwing 
walnuts to the boys who were in the street when the bride was 
led home. — tibi deserit Hespencs Oetam. The tibi here, as in 
the preceding verse, means simply for thee. Wagner says it is 
tibi cupienti, and refers to Geor. ii. 242; iv. 354 ; Aen. i. 136, 
and other places, where he says the dative indicates an affec- 
tion of the mind. From the mention of Mount Oeta, Voss 
infers that the scene of the song is laid in Thessaly. This, 
though not unlikely, is by no means certain, for, as we have 
often observed, the poets did not attend to matters of this 
kind. It is possible, as Heyne conjectures, that he may be 
following some Greek poet who lived in Thessaly, and who in 
singing, it may be the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, described 
the evening-star as rising over Oeta; but his immediate au- 
thority seems to have been the beautiful Carmen Nuptiale of 
Catullus (lxii.), in which, when the chorus of youths has com- 
menced Vesper adest,juvenes-, consurgite, Vesper Olympo Ex- 
pectata diu vix tandem lumina tollit, etc., that of the maidens 
replies, Cernitis, innuptae, juvenes ? consurgite contra, Nimi- 
rum Oetaeos ostendit Noctifer ignes, etc. In the re- 
mainder of the poem this star is called, as in Virgil, Hesperus. 
It is strange how inobservant of nature the ancient poets 
frequently were. Almost every one, we should suppose, is 
aware that Venus is never an evening and a morning star in 
the same part of the year ; yet here our poet has in v. 17. Lu- 
cifer, and in this place Hesperus, speaking evidently of the 



ECLOGUE VIII. 28-41. 109 

one day. Catullus, addressing Hesperus in the poem cited, 
says (v. 34), Nocte latent fures quos idem saepe revertens, Hes- 
pere, mutato comprendis nomine eosdem. Cinna, in his Smyrna 
said, Te matutinus jientem conspexit Eous, Et flentem pernio 
vidit post Hesperus idem. Horace has (C. ii. 9, 10), Nee tibi 
Vespero Surgente decedunt amoves, Nee rapidum fugiente Solem 
See also Statius, Th. vi. 238 ; Seneca, Hippol. 748 ; Oed. 740. 
— deserit, leaves, i. e. sinks behind it after the sun ; not as Voss 
says, rises over it. 

32-36. O digno, etc. This is said with bitter irony : 
* Thou, who art united to a precious husband, to one worthy 
of a perjured maid like thee.' — 35. Nee curare, etc. ' Do not 
believe that the gods punish perjury.' 

37-42. From reflecting on her perfidy, he is led now to 
go back to the origin of his passion, which had commenced 
even in his boyhood. — Saepibus in nostris, etc., 'I first saw 
you, when a little girl, with my mother in our garden gather- 
ing apples.' Saepes seems to be put for the garden which it 
enclosed. — roscida, having the dew-drops upon them : it was 
therefore early in the morning — 38. vester, i. e. you and my 
mother. — matre, my (not thy) mother : see the corresponding 
place in Theocritus. — 39. Alter ab undecimo, etc., ' I was then 
only in my twelfth year :' see v. 49. Servius says thirteenth, as 
alter, he says, means the second. — acceperat, the year is very 
naturally said to receive those that enter into it. — 41. Ut vidi, 

V. 33. YivbxjKb), xapieaaa tcopa, rives ovveica ^euyeis" 
Olivew /xoi Xrtcri'a fiev 6(ppvs gtti ttcivti fierdnrqi 
'E? dirbs rerarai ttoti Qdrepov tDs fiia fiaupd. 

Theocr. xi. 30. 
V. 37. 'HpdffOrjv fiev eywya Teovs, Kopa, av'iKa irparov 
^HvQes efia uvv fiarpi, 8e\oi<j' vaKtvOiva fvXXa 
'E£ cipeos Spe-J/aaOai' eyw 5' 6Sbv dyefiovevov. 

Id. xi. 25. 
V. 41. 'Qs d'ldev, uis fiiv epws Trvicivds ippevas dfityucdXvifjev. 

Horn. II. xiv. 294. 
X' ws ISov, ws efidvrjv, ois fiev nepi Qvfios id(pdrj 
AeiXaias. Theoc. ii. 82. 

'Qs ISev, ms efidvr], (lis es QaOvv uXXer epwra. — Id. iii. 42. 



110 BUCOLICS. 

etc. The first ut, says Voss, after Servius (to whom Wagner 
and Forbiger assent), is an adverb of time, when, the other 
two of exclamation, how. The last i in peril is not elided on 
account of the pause and the arsis. — mains error, the madness 
of love. Love is regarded as an aberration of the intellect. 

43-46. I am now awaked from my delusion, and I know 
the true nature of Love. He is an unfeeling monster, and not 
the gentle being I supposed him to be. — cotibits, same as cau- 
tions, of which it is an ancient or rustic form, asplostrum for 
plaustrum. — ilium, with emphasis, that, used in either a good 
or a bad sense: see on iv. 15. — 44. Tmaros, or Tomaros, a 
mountain of Epirus, at the foot of which lay Dodona. — JRho- 
dope, a mountain-range of Thrace. — Garamantes, the people 
inhabiting what the ancients regarded as the most remote part 
of Africa beyond the Gaetulians. — 4-5. Nee noslri, etc., of 
neither our kin nor blood, i. e. totally devoid of humanity — 
cdnnt, for ediderunt, a usual substitution of the present for the 
past, to give animation to the narrative. 

47-51. From a consideration of the perverse nature of Love, 
he passes to the thought of one of the crimes to which that 
deity had incited mortals, and selects the murder of her chil- 
dren by Medea, a consequence of injured love. — 48. Crudelis 
tu quoque mater, etc. Though he throws the principal part of 
the blame on Love, who urged the deed, he will not acquit 
Medea, Avho executed it : if he was wicked, she was cruel. He 
then puts the question, which was greater in its respective de- 
gree, his wickedness or her cruelty, and does not venture to 
solve the problem, contenting himself with again asserting 
that he was wicked and she cruel. 



V. 43. ~Svv eyvdiv Tov'Epura' (3apvs 0eoV j; pa Xeaivas 
Maadov hQi}\at,ev, cpvpi£ re fiiv erpacpe jiariip. 

Theoc. iii. 15. 

yXavKt] Se ere Tiicre QaXaaoa, 

lierpai r ri\t(3a.T0i' on roi voos earlv cnrrjvrjs. 

Horn. II. xvi. 34. 

V. 44. *H "A6a>, r) 'PodoVav, r) Kcivkcmtov eaxctTOCOvra. 

Theoc. vii. 77. 



ECLOGUE VIII. 42-58. Ill 

52-57. He now proceeds, from reflecting on the nature and 
power of Love, and the way the world is thrown into confusion 
by him, and also remembering that he is himself about to leave 
it, to assert, that he does not care what changes may occur in 
nature. Or he rather intimates that they may be expected to 
take place, since so unnatural a thing as the rejection of him- 
self and the acceptance of Mopsus by Nisa has occurred. — 
52. Ultra. This expresses, that the terror of the wolf would 
be such, that at the very sight, as it were, of the sheep he 
would take to flight. — aurea mala. See on iii. 71. — 54. Pin- 
guia electra. The i\\eicrpov, in Latin succinum, amber, was, 
according to the popular belief, a gum which exuded from the 
trees on the banks of the Eridanus, into which the sisters of 
Phaethon had been changed. See on vi. 62. The Avord pin- 
guis is used of any fluid that is of a thick, unctuous nature ; 
sudo is also an appropriate and graphic expression. Cf. iv. 30. 
Voss regards the use of the plural electra as one of Virgil's 
licences. — 55. Certent, sc. in cantu. — sit Tityrus Orpheus. A 
stroke of rustic satire. Tityrus is of course a shepherd, who 
made but indifferent music on his syrinx. He shall rival Or- 
pheus in the power of his melody over the beasts of the wood, 
or Arion in his over the fishes of the sea. The story of Arion 
is well known. See Herod, i. 23 ; Ovid, Fast ii. 80, seq. 

58-61. Omnia ml, etc. From the thought of Arion among 
the porpoises in the sea, he goes on to say : ' As for me, I have 
no more to do with earth, and the sea, for me, may cover the 
whole of it.' — medium, that is, deep, as the sea is out in its 



V. 52. "Svv la (iev fopioire fiaroi, <popeoire 5' aicavOcu, 
'A Se Ka\a vdpKiaaos kir' dpicev9oi<n KOfiduat.' 
TlavTa 6 evaXXa yevoivro, Kal a -tt'itvs o-^vas eve'iKai, 
Aa<pvis eirel BvdffKer Kal rds Kvvas toXacpos e\/coi, 
K>)£ opeojv rol GicCjTres drjdoai yapvaaivTO. 

Theoc. i. 132. 

V. 58. T Q Xvkoi, (S Owes, w av ujpca (pioXdSes apicroi, 

XaipeO'' 6 (3(dic6\os vfifj.iv eyw Adtyvis ovk er dv vXav, 
Ow er dvd. Spvfiivs, ovk aXaea. x ai ? i 'ApeOotua, 
Kal Trorafioi, rol %etre tcaXov Kara QvftJ3pi8os vdwp. 

Id. i. 115. 



112 



BUCOLICS. 



middest point. — Vivite, i. q. valete, with which it is often joined. 
— 59. specula, any lofty point, from which there is an exten- 
sive view. — aerii montis : see on i. 58. — 60. extremum hoc, etc. 
' Receive, Xisa, this my death as the last present I can make 
you.' Munus is evidently his death, not his song, as Heyne 
understands it. 

62-63. The poet having himself given the song of Damon, 
calls on the Muses to proceed with that of Alphesiboeus, which 
required more knowledge. This was a compliment for Pollio, 
if, as Voss asserts, he had given him this subject. — non omnia, 
etc., a proverbial expression. 

64-68. A maiden in the country, whom her lover had de- 
serted, has recourse to magic arts in order to recover him. 
Like Theocritus, whom he imitates, our poet hurries at once 
in medias res, and introduces the enchantress, calling to her 
attendant to bring her the things requisite for the rites. The 
action takes place probably in the inner-court, the impluvium, 
of a house (as Aen. iv. 504) : see v. 107. Voss supposes this 
scene also to be laid in Thessaly. — Effer aquam, etc. The 
altar which she is to use stands ready ; the lustral water is to 
be brought out, the altar to be bound round with a fillet, and 
incense and herbs to be burnt on it. — molli, because the vitta 
was made of wool. — 65. Verbenas. "Verbenae," says Donatus 
(on Ter. Andr. iv. 3, 1 1), " sunt omnes herbae frondesque fes- 
tae ad aras coronandas, vel omnes herbae frondesque ex aliquo 
loco puro decerptae : verbenae autem dictae quasi herbenae." 
— ]>ingues, juicy, see on v. 54. — adole. The original meaning 
of the verb oleo seems to have been to heap up, augment. It 
was used for the piling of the offerings on the altar, and, as 
they were then burnt, it gradually, like so many other verbs, 
got its secondary and more usual sense. — mascula tura. The 
better kind of frankincense, which was white and round, was 

V. 59. Tdv (3airav cLttoovs es Kv/xara tt)vu> a\ev[iai, 

^QTrep rws Qvvvuis o~KOTnd<7CeTai"0\-Kis 6 ypnrevs. 

Theoc. iii. 25. 
V. 61. A/?yere (3h>Ko\iKas, Mdicrai, Ire, Xjjyer' a'oioas. — Id. i. 127. 
V. 64. ~2re-i/ov rdv Ke\e(3av (poivaceoj olds awry. — Id. ii. 2. 



eclogue viir. 59-71. 113 

so called, according to Dioscorides, (i. 82) and Pliny (xii. 14, 
32). See the Flora, s. v. — 66. Conjugis, see on v. 18 — sanos 
sensus, i. e. ' That I may make him mad with love ; ' destroy 
the present sanity or indifference of his mind. — 67. Carmina, 
charms, magic strains or forms : see Aen. iv. 487 ; Hor. S. i. 
8, 19. 

69-72. She now enumerates some of the principal effects 
of charms. — deducere Litnam. This was one of the most 
ordinary feats of the ancient sorceresses, especially of those of 
Thessaly : it is not known how it was performed : Ovid, 
Tibullus and other poets make frequent mention of it. — 70. 
Circe, etc. For the change of the companions of Ulysses by 
Circe, see Horn. Od. x. 203 seq. — UlixL The Latin language, 
having no letter answering to the Greek v (which was pro- 
nounced like the French u or the German ii), frequently used 
for it, in words from the Greek, the i as the sound approach- 
ing nearest to it, just as we ourselves have clone at times, as 
in brisk, from the French brusque. In like manner the Greek 
ev (probably the French eu, German o) became e. Hence we 
might have expected that 'OSvaaevs would have become Odis- 
ses, but by one of those freaks of language for which we can- 
not account it became Ulixes ; for d and I, strange as it may 
seem, are commutable (see on i. 2) and x is akin to ss. The 
form Ulysses is not to be found in any good MS. of Virgil or 
Ovid: see Burmann on Ov. Her. i. 1. Ulixi is the genitive, 
contracted from Ulixei, according to some critics ; but Wag- 
ner on Aen. i. 30. shows that in Greek proper names in evs, 
terminating in Latin in es, as Ulixes, Achilles, the genitive is 
made in i and the accusative in en ; while in those which retain 
the evs, as Tereus, Nereus, Ilioneus, the genitive ends in ei, 
the accusative in ea. On the Latin forms of Greek names, see 
Mythology, p. 553. — 71. Frigidus, etc., 4 the cold snake is 
burst asunder by charms.' That this is the sense of rumpo in 
this place is proved by the following passages : Carmine dis- 
siliunt, abruptis faucibns, ungues, Ov. Am. ii. 1,25. Vipereas 
rumpo verbis et carmine fauces, Ov. Met. vii. 203. Jam dis- 

V. 68. "Ivy?, sXks tv ttjvov ef.ibv irort Supa rbv avdpa. — Theoc. ii. 17. 



114 BUCOLICS. 

rumpetur medius.jam utMarsii colubras Disrumpit cantu,venas 
cum extenderit omnes, Lucil. xx. 5. Compare Hor. Ep. i. 19, 
15. The other interpretation ofrumpo by Gessner and Voss 
is that of cheeking, controlling, depriving of power. On fri- 
gidus, as an epithet of the snake, see on iii. 93. 

73-76. She holds an image which she has made of Daphnis 
in her hand as the subject of her charms. — Tertia, for tria. 
This employment of the distributive for the cardinal number 
was not unusual with the poets : see Geor. i. 231 ; Aen. v. 85. 
560 ; Zumpt, § 119. — tibi circumdo, I wind round thee, i. e. the 
image that represents thee. — triplici, etc., three threads, each 
of a different colour. Servius, who is followed by Voss, says 
nine threads, three of each colour ; but Wunderlich doubts if 
the Latin language will admit of this sense : it seems how- 
ever to have been so understood by the author of the Ciris, 
v. 371. — 74. haec. This is the reading of all the MSS. save 
one (the Longobardic), which has hanc, agreeing with effigiem, 
in v. 74, and which is followed by Wakefield, Voss, Wagner, 
and Forbiger. Wagner is so positive that hanc is the proper 
word, that he says that it should be admitted on conjecture 
even if it were to be found in no MS., while Jahn asserts that 
it mars the sense of the passage. Effigiem, he says, answers 
to tibi in v. 73, and is merely te, and hanc effigiem is therefore 
hunc te. — 75. duco, I carry. Cf. Aen. x. 206. — deus, a deity in 
general, or perhaps Hecate in particular : see Aen. ii. 632. — 
numero impare. A peculiar sanctity and dignity was given to 
the odd numbers, because they could not be divided so as to 
make even parts. Three was the most sacred, as having be- 
ginning, middle and end. 

77-79. She calls on her attendant Amaryllis, and directs 
her to take three threads of different colours, and tie a knot 
on each, saying, as she tied them, ' I tie the bonds of Venus.' 
This was expected by sympathy to bind the mind of the ob- 
ject in the chains as it were of love and desire for her who 
employed the charm. 



'Es rpls airo<nrevdui, ical rpis race, iroTvia, 0wvw. — Theoc. ii. 43. 



ECLOGUE VIII. 73-82. 115 

80-84. The commentators, following Servius, suppose that, 
in addition, as it would seem, to the one mentioned in v. 15, 
she had two images of Daphnis, the one of clay, the other of 
wax. Their chief reason for doing so seems to be, that in 
Horace (S. i. 8, SO) Canidia makes two images, one of wool, 
the other of wax, both of which Forbiger very strangely sup- 
poses to be of the same person ; and but for which passage and 
the note of Servius, he says, we should be under no need of 
supposing two images in this place ; as the waxen one might 
be in a case made of clay, or the body of the image might be 
of clay, the head and perhaps the limbs of wax. We confess 
we see no necessity for supposing any images at all. She 
might have put a piece of clay and a piece of wax into the fire, 
just as she puts the sprigs of bay, the mola and the bitumen. 
— Limns ut hie, etc., ' As in one and the same fire the clay 
hardens and the wax melts, so, under the influence of one and 
the same charm, may the heart of Daphnis harden with re- 
spect to other women, soften with respect to me.' In the jingle 
of durescit and liquescit there is apparently an imitation of 
something similar in magic rites. — 81. nostro amove only refers 
to liquescit, the reference to the other verb is understood. — 
82. Sparge molam, etc. Another symbolic magic art. The 
mola (or mixture of far and salt) and sprigs or leaves of bay 
are thrown into the fire, that as they burn and crackle so may 
Daphnis burn — -fragilis, crackling, as it were, breakable. 

Carbasus intenta theatris -fragi les sonitus chartarum 

commeditatur, Lucr. vi. 109 seq. — bitum,ine, with bitumen or 
mineral-pitch, of which the fire was probably made. It is quite 

V. 80. 'Qs tovtov tov icapbv eyio evv Saiftovi rdicw, 

"Qs tolkoiQ' {nr' epojTOs 6 Mvvdios avTiica AeX^is. — Theoc. ii. 28. 

V. 82. 'AXtyird rot 7rparov ivvpl raKerac dXX' eir'nra<jGe, 

* * # *=):*:;:#* # 

TIacrff' dfxa ical Xeye ravra' rd AeXfiSos ocrrea 7ra<7<rw. 

Id. ii. 18. 
V. 83. AeX^is ep,' dviaaev' eyw 5' errl AeX^ioi Sdtpvav 
AWu)' x ws avrd \a/cet [iky a Kairirvpiaaaa, 
KrjJicnrLvas afOi], kovSs gwoFov eiSo/xes auras* 
Ovtio rot Kai Ae\(pis evi fXoyl adpic' djiaQvvoi. — Id. ii. 23. 



116 BUCOLICS. 

absurd in Heyne to say, that the bay-leaves were daubed with 
bitumen, which is a hard substance. — 83. in Daphnide, i. e. 
(says Jahn, following Servius) " eirl Aa^ncU super Daphnidis 
effigiem." Voss and Forbiger understand it in the same man- 
ner ; but as this goes on the supposition of the limits and cera of 
v. SO being images, we feel inclined with Wagner to take in 
Daphnide as equivalent to propter Daplmidem. At all events 
it is to be understood as the enl AeX^i^t in the corresponding 
place of Theocritus. 

85-90. She now describes the violence of the love which 
she wishes the preceding charms to infuse into Daphnis. — 
Talis amor, sc. teneat: see v. 89. — 86. bucida, heifer, a dimi- 
nutive of bos it is said. We doubt however if idus, ula, was 
a diminutive in the ancient language. Romulus was appa- 
rently the same as Romus, Catulus as Catus, Brutulus as 
Brutus. — 87. Propter aquae rivum, beside a stream of water. 
— 88. Perdita, an epiphonema, like the Homeric vr}ivir}, and 
should therefore be enclosed in commas. — decedere nocti, as if 
ordered by night to depart. — 89. nee sit mild, etc. The usual 
language of lovers, who declare they will never forgive a slight, 
yet never can keep their resolution. Comp. Ter. Eun. i. 1. 
In the whole of this stanza we may observe the perturbation 
of the speaker: carried away by her passion, she omits in 
the commencement the verb after amor; and then after 
qualis, instead of saying tenet bitculam, she says cum bucula 
fessa procumbit, and does not think of the verb teneo till she 
comes to the end, where she is obliged to repeat talis amor. 

91-94. Another charm is that of burying under the threshold 
of her door such articles belonging to Daphnis as she possessed. 



V. 87. Propter aquae rivum, sub ramis arboris altae. — Lucr. ii. 30. 

V. 88. Perdita, nee serae meminit decedere nocti. 

Varius, ap. Macrob. vi. 2. 
V. 91. Tovt' arrb rds ■xXaivas to Kpdarreoov wXeae AeX^ts, 
"Q 'ya> vvv riXXoiaa kut dypiqj ev irvpi f3dXXw. 

QeffrvXi) vvv oe \af3o7cra rv rd Qpova ravQ' vTrofia^ov 
Ids rrjvio (pXids KaOvTreprepov. — Theoc. ii. 53. 



eclogue vnr. 83-101. 117 

This was supposed to exercise a magic power of attraction. 
See Aen. iv. 495 seq. — exuvias, whatever one put off (exuit) 
was an exuvia, clothes, arms, etc. The word was chiefly- 
used of the skins of animals. — 93. debent (sc. ducere, from 
next verse) mihi. They ought, according to magic rules, to 
attract him. 

95-100. Has herbas atque haec venena, a hendyadis for has 
kerbas venenatas. See on ii. 8. — Ponto, i. e. in Colchis, the 
country of Medea. — 96. Ipse. In this word, as often in our 
own himself, there is implied an expression of dignity or su- 
periority : Moeris himself, the great Moeris. — 97. His, with 
these, by the power of these. The three following were usual 
feats of magicians, and are frequently mentioned by Tibullus 
and the other Latin poets. The change into a wolf is what 
in the middle ages was called becoming a ivar-wolf, the su- 
perstition having probably come down from the ancients. 
The earliest mention of it is the Arcadian legend of the change 
of Lycaon. Petronius (62) describes the process of becoming 
a war-wolf. The story of Saul and the witch of Endor is the 
earliest notice of the evocation of the dead. There was a 
special law in the Twelve Tables against charming away other 
people's crops of corn. Our own unfortunate witches were 
accused of charming away the butter out of the churn. — 
99. alio, to another place. This word is given in the diction- 
aries as an adverb, but improperly, for it is plainly a dative of 
alius. As this word, beside its ordinary gen. alius, made also 
one in i and ae, as aliae pecudis, Cic, aliae partis, Liv., so it 
also made a dat. in o and ae, of which the latter occurs in 
Plautus and Gellius. — messes, i. q.frumenta. " Sata in futu- 
ram messem." — Heyne. 

101-104. All her charms hitherto employed having proved 
unavailing, she has recourse to one which seems to have been 
thought of the greatest efficacy, that of throwing ashes into 
a running stream with the head averted. The reason of this 



101. T Hpi de <7v\\e%a<ja koviv Trvpbs an<pnr6\wv ns 
'PupaTU) ev fidXa iracav virep TTOTa/xoTo <pepoica, 
'PwyaSas es Trerpas, VTrepovpiov" litp de veeadai 
"Acrpeirros. — Theoc. xxiv. 91. 



118 BUCOLICS. 

charm, like that of so many others, is unknown. — rivo, the 
dat. for in rivurn, see on ii. 30 — 102. Trans caput, the Greek 
virep Ke<pa\{)v. — nee respexeris. This was an essential part of 
such charms, lest the operator should be terrified or injured 
by whatever might appear. Cave respexis,fuge et operi caput, 
Plaut. Most. ii. 2, 8S. Hoc novies dicit nee respicit, Ov. 
Fast. v. 4.-39. — 103. nihil Me deos, etc., 'He cares not for the 
gods that witnessed his perjury, and my previous charms have 
had no effect on him.' 

105-109. When she goes to the altar to take up the ashes 
for her last charm, a spontaneous flame springs up from among 
them ; and while she is pondering on this favourable sign, the 
watch-dog begins to bark, announcing the approach of some 
one, who proves to be Daphnis. — 106. dumferre moror, while 
I have delayed taking them away. — JBonum sit, may it prove 
a good omen. — 107. Nescia quid certe est, it is something 
certainly, though I know not what. Doering would punctuate 
this verse thus, Nescio quid. — Certe est et, etc., i. e. nescio quid, 
sc. audio. Certe est, sc. Daphnis. We prefer the former, as 
more simple and natural. — Hylax, barker, from vXaKrew. — 
108. Credimus? do I believe? is it a reality? — an qui amant: 
see on ii.53. — somnia fingunt, form dreams for themselves, i.e. 
take their hopes and wishes for realities. — 109. Parcite, etc., 'it 
is not so ; he is really coming ; no more charms are required/ 

Observations. 

Date. — There can be little dispute about the date of this 
eclogue ; for Pollio, to whom it is dedicated, led his army into 
Dalmatia toward the end of the year 712-14*, and he was 
evidently on his return after his victories when the eclogue 
was composed. The date therefore is 713-15. 

Subject. — This eclogue contains the songs of two shepherds, 
each on a different subject. It thus differs from the fifth, while, 
in not being amcebeeic, it is distinguished from the third and 
seventh. It was perhaps the two songs in the seventh Idyll of 
Theocritus that suggested this construction. The first song 
has no prototype in Theocritus, but it contains some imita- 
tions of him ; the second is a plain, but inferior, copy of his 
second Idyll. 



ECLOGUE IX. 1. 119 

Characters.— It is merely said that the two swains were 
shepherds. In their songs, of course, they each assume; a 
character. 

Scenery. — There is nothing to indicate the scenery of the 
place where the two shepherds sang. That of the first song 
seems to be our poet's usual ideal one, as we find mountains 
(30, 59) and the sea in it (59). The scene of the second 
seems to be, as we have observed, the impluvium or inner- 
court of a house. 



Eclogue IX. — Moeris. 



Argument. 



Moeris, the steward or bailiff of a proprietor named Menal- 
cas, who was a poet, as he is on his way to the town where 
the person who had gotten possession of Menalcas' lands 
resided, with some kids to his new master, is overtaken by a 
neighbouring swain named Lycidas, to whom he relates the 
misfortunes of himself and his former master. As they pro- 
ceed, they sing various fragments of Menalcas' poetry. 

Notes. 

1. Quo te pedes? sc. ducunt, as appears by the following 
ducit. Ad diaetam tuam ipsi me.. .pedes ducunt, Plin. Ep. vii. 5. 
When one verb is, as it were, thus contained in another, the 
more usual way is to omit the verb in the second member. 
Spohn gives from Horace the two following as examples of 
the process in the text. Saepe velut qui currebat fugiens 
hostem (S. i. 3, 9), i. e. saepe velut qui hostem fugiens currebat, 
currebat ille, and Qui mercenarius agrum Ilium ipsum mer- 
catus aravit (S. ii. 6, 12), i. e. ilium ipsum mercatus erat. — 
urbem, the town, as in i. 20, without any mention of its name. 
The critics, as there, supply Mantua, but with as little reason. 



120 BUCOLICS. 

2-6. The perturbation of Moeris, caused by his grief and 
indignation, is finely marked by the abrupt and involved man- 
ner in which he commences his reply. He gives no direct 
answer to the question of Lycidas, but utters at once what lay 
heavy on his mind. — vim pervenimus, I have lived to see. 
Literally, I have come alive to, etc. — advena, a stranger. — 
3. quo, to where, to that condition. It is an old dat. of qui, 
and is governed of pervenimus. Cf. i. 72. The reading of 
most MSS. is quod, which is adopted by Heyne, Voss and 
Jahn. Wagner and Forbiger prefer quo, which is that of 
three, or rather four, MSS. The sense of the whole passage 
is this : ' O Lycidas, I have lived to come to that state which I 
never apprehended, that a stranger should get possession of 
my land and turn me out of it.' Wagner thinks that vivi is 
used, because the usual way in which soldiers got possession 
of lands was by slaying the owners or driving them out by the 
right of war, whereas this was a new mode, namely that of 
seizing the lands of quiet inoffensive people. But surely this 
is refining too much. — nostri agelli, of our (i. e. my) land. 
The first person plural is here, as usual, used for the singular, 
as appears by pervenimus. The slaves then, as old servants 
do now, spoke of their master's property as their own. — i<. Haec 
mea sunt. This was the legal form of asserting one's right to 
a thing : see on i. 47. — coloni, owners. The original meaning 
of colonics is cultivator, farmer. Cic. de Or. ii. 71 — 5. victi, 
tristes, overcome, obliged to yield to force, and therefore obey- 
ing with a sorrowful heart. The asyndeton here is very 
effective. — Fors, i. e. Fortuna, though these words are not 
exactly equivalent; for Donatus (on Ter. Phorm. v. 6,1) says, 
Aliud Fortuna est, aliud Fors Fortuna. See Ov. Fast. vi. 773, 
with our note. — 6. quod nee vertat bene : as we would say, 
' May it be his poison ! may it choke him !' Quod, with some 
lost neuter noun answering to the Greek xpV" understood, 
mav, as here, be used after a plural. Vertat bene, instead of 
the common reading bene vertat, is the reading of the Medi- 
cean and three other MSS. Terence says, Quae res tibi vor- 
tat male, Adelph. ii. 1, 37, and Quae quidem illi vortat male, 
Phorm. iv. 3, 73. The other reading Wagner thinks arose 



ECLOGUE IX. 2-15. 121 

from the common formula, quod bene vertat. — mittimus, 'I send 
from the farm' ; though he happens to be bringing them him- 
self. As the slaves in these cases usually went with the land, 
Moeris was continued in his office of vitticus. 

7-10. ' But I had heard that Menalcas had by means of his 
poetry saved all his land, which extends from the ridge of the 
hill down to the water's edge and the old beech-trees.' — sub- 
ducere, to let down, decline gradually. — colles, i. q. collis, plur. 
for sing, as usual. — 8. molli, etc. Nearly the same as subdu- 
cere, literally to send the ridge down by a gentle declivity. — 
9. jam fr acta cacumina, in apposition with veteres fagos. See 
on ii. 3. They were broken by time and the weather, as is 
indicated by jam. Voss says that they marked the boundary 
of the land, as Horace says (Ep. ii. 2, 170), qua populus ad- 
sita certis Limitibus vicina refugit jurgia. But this is not so 
certain as it seems to him and his followers. — 10. vestrum, for 
Moeris had spoken in the first person plural. 

11-16. 'No doubt you may have heard so, for so it was re- 
ported ; but 'tis little our poetry avails against the arms of the 
soldiery.' — 12. Nostra. See on v. 2. — 13. Chaonias columbas, 
simply pigeons, but the poet in the usual manner (see on i. 54) 
adds an epithet from the name of a country. Chaonia was 
that part of Epirus in which lay Dodona, where the oracle was 
founded by a pigeon. See Herod, ii. 55. — 14. Quod nisi, etc. 
' But if I had not been warned by a bird of augury to get out 
of this new subject of dispute as best I could, neither I nor my 
master would be now alive.' — me. We may suppose that it 
was Moeris who first observed the prophetic bird, and that he 
then informed Menalcas of what it portended. — quacunque, 
sc. via, ratione. — incidere. This verb signifies to break off a 
thing that had been begun. Incidere ludum, Hor. Ep. i. 14. 36; 
incidere sermonem, Liv. xxxii. 37, 5. — litis, plur. for sing. — 
15. comix, a raven : see on Geor. i. 382. Sinistra. Comix sinis- 
tra facit ratum, Cic. Div. i. 39, 85 ; laeva cornici omina (data), 
Phaedr. iii. 18, 12. 

V. 13 Tremeretque per auras 

Aeris accipiter fugiens, veniente columba. — Lucret. iii. 751. 

G 



122 BUCOLICS. 

17-25. Caclit in qucmquam, etc. ' Could any one be capable 
of such a crime ! ' Cadere in signifies fall to, attach to, as 
Noil cadit in lunic hominem isla suspicio, Cic. Sull. 27, 75. — 
18. solatia, i. e. carmina, which were a joy and a solace to all 
who heard them. — Menalca. He apostrophises the absent 
poet. — 19. Quis caneret JYi/mpfias? etc. In these two verses 
there is a reference to the fifth eclogue. — 20. quis spargeret 
aut induceret. See v. 40. 'Who would in his song direct the 
swains to scatter,' etc. The poet here says, fontis induceret 
umbra, and v. 20, inducite fontibus umbras ; on which Bur- 
mann observes, " Sunt quaedam locutiones quae duplicem 
constructionem habentes idem significant : sic dicimus spar- 
gcre humum herbis et herbas spargere humo. Vid. Heins. ad 
Ov. Ep. xiii. 10J. Simile vidimus Ec. iii. 43. labia admovere 
jioculis etpocida labris." — 21. Vel quae, i. e. Vel quis caneret 
ca quae. — tacitus sublegi, I silently picked up. — tibi, from you ; 
an ordinary use of the dat. From you, i. e. Moeris, to whom 
he now turns his discourse. It is thus understood by the 
critics, but in our opinion he still continues to address the 
absent Menalcas. — 22. Cum le, etc. 'Which I heard you sing- 
ing when you were going to visit my favourite Amaryllis.' 
It is uncertain if Amaryllis was the object of affection to both 
swains, or to Lycidas only. The latter is the more probable, 
as Moeris (if he is the person addressed) was now growing 
old, v. 51. Dcliciae always means an object of love. We are 
to suppose that Moeris, or rather Menalcas, as he went along 
amused himself with singing one of his master's or of his own 
songs. — 23. Tityre, etc. This seems to be the commencement 
of a translation which Virgil had made of the third Idyll of 
Theocritus, but which he never published, as he used that 
idyll in the composition of his second eclogue. — dum redeo, 
till I return. Delibera liaec dum ego redeo, Ter. Ad. ii. 1 , 42 ; 
expectabo dum venit, Ter. Phor. v. 7, 89 ; caussasque innecte 
morandi Dum pelago desaevit hiems, Aen. iv. 51. See on vii. 5. 
— potum, to drink ; the supine, as in vii. 11. 

V. 23. Tirvp', ej.iiv to koXov TreQiXafieve, fioaice tus alyas, 
Kai ttoti rdv Kpdvav dye, Tirvpe' Kai tov kv6p\av 
Tov KifivKov KvciKwva (pvXacraeo, \xi] tv Kopv'iy. — Theoc. iii. 3. 



ECLOGUE IX. 17-35. 123 

26-29. Immo haec, sc. quis caneret, ' nay, rather who would 
have completed the more important poem which he had com- 
menced in praise of Varus, who was to have saved his lands 
for him, and of which I remember the following passage.' — 
27- superet, etc. If Mantua remain to us, if the Mantuan 
district escape the rapacious soldiery. Supero is often equiva- 
lent to supersum. Solus superabat Acestes, Aen. v. 519; sex 
superant versus, Prop. iv. 2, 57 ; quid igitur superat quod pur- 
gemus, Liv. xlv. 58. — 28. nimium vicina, too near, though 
these towns are forty miles asunder. The soldiers to whom 
the lands of Cremona had been assigned, not thinking them 
sufficient, obtained also those of the adjoining Mantuan 
district. — 29- Cantantes, etc. ' If you do this, the swans, those 
melodious birds, that frequent the Mincius (Geor. ii. 198), 
will bear thy name aloft to the very stars.' With the known 
licence of a poet he gives sense and reason to the birds as he 
does elsewhere (i. 39. v. 27) to beasts and plants. — cycni, the 
Greek kvicvoi. The proper Latin name of this bird is olor. 

30-36. Lycidas, anxious to hear more of the verses of Me- 
nalcas, conjures Moeris by what is most to be desired by a 
farmer to go on with what he can recollect of them. — Sic, so. 
In Dante and the elder Italian poets, the sic of the Latins be- 
came se. 

" Se non t'invidii il del si dolce stato." (Tasso, G. L. vii. 15.) 

— Cyrneas taxos, the yews. As this tree abounded in Corsica 
(called by the Greeks Kvpvos), the ornant adjective is added in 
the usual manner. In the Georgics (iv. 47) the poet directs 
that there should be no yews near the bee-hives. — examina. 
See on vii. 1 3. — 32. si quid habes. See iii. 52. v. 10. — Pierides. 
See on iii. 85. — et me fecere poetani, etc. The reason why he 
is so anxious to hear more of Menalcas' verses, being himself 
a brother as it were of the poetic guild. — 34. Vatem, i. q. 
poetcmu — non ego credidus Mis, I am not believing to them, 
i. e. I do not believe them. See Excursus' on ii. 10. — 35. nee 

V. 32. Kou yap eyai Wolguv Kcnrvpbv aTo/ia, icrj/xe Xeyovri 
Havres aoiSov cipioroV eyil) Be ris ov TaxvireiOi)s, 
Ov Aav' ov yap ttoj, icar' kfiov voov, ovre tov ea8Xbv 
2i/ce\iciav vikjjjui rov e/c Sa^tw, ovre QikriTav, 
'Aeidoiv, fidrpaxos Se iror dicpioas ws tis epiacco. — Theoc. vii. 37. 

g2 



124- BUCOLICS. 

videor. This may be taken either passively, ' nor am I seen/ 
sc. by others ; or reflectively, ' nor am I seen by myself,' i. e. 
' nor do I appear to myself.' — Vario. All the MSS. read Varo, 
but Servius and Cruquius' scholiast on Hor. C. i. 6. read Vario, 
which is undoubtedly the true reading. It was the previous 
mention of Varus that led the copyists into error. For Varius 
and Cinna, two poets of the time, see Life of Virgil. — 36. sed 
argufos, etc. These words present a simple and natural sense, 
beyond which we needed not to go, were it not that we know 
(see iii. 90) that Virgil introduced traits of personal satire into 
his bucolics, and that there was actually at the time a poet 
named Anser who had written a poem in praise of M. Antonius, 
which was rewarded by a grant of land in the Falernian district, 
to whom Cicero thus alludes (Phil. xiii. 5), De Falerno Anseres 
depellcnlur. Anser is mentioned along with Cinna by Ovid, Tr. 
ii.435. 

37-1-3. Id quidem ago, etc. 'That indeed is what I am doing : 
I am turning in my mind, trying to recollect another of his 
poems, which is by no means contemptible,' i. e. is excellent. 
— mecum ipse, i. q. mecum ipso. — 38. neque est ignobile, that 
is, as we have said, it is excellent. This was a form of praise 
used by the ancients, from whom we have adopted it. Thus 
Livy terms Polybius scriptorem hand spernendum, which 
some critics have ignorantly taken for a phrase of disparage- 
ment. — 39. Hue ades : see vii. 9. ^Ve have here another frag- 
ment of translation from Theocritus, namely the eleventh 
Idyll, which he afterwards used in the second eclogue. It is 
part of the address of Polyphemus the Cyclops to the sea- 
nymph Galatea. — quis est nam, a tmesis for quis nam est. — 40. 
ver purpureum, bright brilliant spring. Our poet Gray ren- 
dered it literally, but incorrectly, purple spring. Purpureus 
is the Greek 7rop<f>vpeos (a reduplication from itvp) and signi- 

V. 39. 'AAV CMpUev rv, ttoO' dfie, kcii e£ets ovSev eXaavov' 
Tdv yXavadv de 9dXa<r<rav ea ttoti xkpaov opex&fjv. 
"ASiov ev Twvrpoj Trap' epiv rdv vvicra hazels. 
'Evrt 8d<pvai Tijvei, evri paSival Kwrdpuraoi, 
'Ej/ri peXas kiggos, evr ajXTteXos a yXvKiiKapTros, 
'Evrl ipvxpov vSwp, to poi d 7roXv8ev8peos A'irva 
AevKas e*c %iovos, ttotov dpftpomov TTpoir\Ti. 
Tj's kclv ruvce QdXaccav e%eiv i\ Kvp,a6' eXoiro ; — Theoc. xi. 42. 



eclogue ix. 35-48. 125 

fies bright. Thus we meet in Horace (C. iv. 1,10) purpurei 
olores ; in Albinovanus (ii. 62), bracJiia purpurea candidiora 
nive ; in Valerius Flaccus (iii. 178), enfrigidus orbes (oculos) 
Purpureos jam somnus obit. See Forbiger in loco. — circum, 
about. — 41. hie Candida, etc., ' here by my cave grow the 
white poplars, and the vines which are trained on them form 
an agreeable shade.' Popidus is evidently put for popidi. — 
42. lentae, flexible, see on i. 4. — 43. insani, senseless, that act 
without any reason. Insani venti, Tibull. ii. 4, 9. — -feriant 
sine, i. q. sine ut feriant. 

44-45. 'What if you were to sing those verses which I once 
heard you singing when you were alone one fine night ?' — 
pura sub node, in a cloudless night. Purus is free from, un- 
encumbered by, anything : thus puras ager or campus is land 
free from trees. See Aen. xii. 771, and Heinsius on Ov. Fast. 
iii. 582. — numeros, the tune. 

46-55. Moeris now sings a piece of a poem which Virgil 
had either really made, or of which he had composed these 
lines as a specimen. The subject is the comet which ap- 
peared at the time when Octavianus was giving games, the 
year after his uncle's death, on the occasion of dedicating the 
temple of Venus Genetrix commenced by the Dictator. The 
popular belief was that that star was the deified soul of 
Caesar. — Daphni. The poet, in the character of a shepherd, 
addresses a fellow-swain. — antiques signorum ortus, i. q. anti- 
quorum signorum ortus. — signorum, of the constellations or 
more remarkable stars, by whose rising and setting the seasons 
and other matters relating to husbandry were determined. — 
47. Dionaei. The Julian gens at Rome claimed as their epony- 
mus lulus the son of Aeneas, the son of Venus, the daughter 
of Jupiter and Dione. See Mythology, p. 139. — astrum, the 
Greek aarpov. Horace (C. i. 12, 47) calls it the Julium sidus. 
—processit, i. e. orta est. See vi. 86. — 48. segetes, the corn- 
fields. This is the original and proper meaning of seges. 
Cato (36, 37) uses it as opposed to pratum and hortum. 
Attius (up. Cic. Tusc. ii. 5) says, Probae, etsi in segetem sunt 
deteriorem datae, Fruges tamen ipsae suapte naiura enitent. 
Horace also says (Ep. i. 7, 21), Haec seges ingratos tulit et 



126 BUCOLICS. 

feret omnibus annis, where the latter part of the verse proves 
this to be the meaning of seges. Such is also its meaning in 
the same poet, C. i. 31, 3 ; iii. 16, 30; and probably Ep. i. 7, 
S7; ii. 2, 160. — gauderent. The employment of the imperf. subj. 
here and in the next verse, where we should have expected a 
fut. is rather unusual. — 49. duceret colorem, would derive co- 
lour, would grow dark, from the influence of the new star. 
It is not unlikely that the summer of the year 711 was in reality 
very hot and dry, for such is the usual effect of comets on the 
weather. — 50. Insere, Daphni, piros, etc. See on i. 74*. ' You 
may now safely graft your fruit-trees ; the new star will give 
them fertility, and the rule of the new prince will assure us of 
peace and tranquillity, so that you can transmit your lands to 
your posterity.' Piros is merely the species for the genus. — 51. 
fert, i. q. aufert. — animum, the mental powers. — 52. puerum, 
in my younger days. — condcre, \. e. condidisse. — lo?igos soles, 
long summer days. By a very natural metaphor people were 
said to bury the day, the sun, etc, when they saw it to its 
close. Thus we say, ' I shall bury such a one,' meaning ' I shall 
outlive him.' ' Ej.tr {jadriy h'btrodias afMpuTepoi "H\iov kv \kayvj 
Karecvacifjiey, Callim. Epigr. ii. 3 ; condit quisque diem colli- 
bus in suis, Hor. C. iv. 5, 29 ; licet quoties vivendo condere 
secla, Lucr. iii. 1103 — 53. oblita, forgotten; in a passive 
sense : see on iii. 106. — 54. lupi, etc. This alludes to a cu- 
rious superstition of the ancients, namely a notion that if any 
one was seen by a wolf before he saw the wolf he lost the use 
of his voice. " I think," says Socrates in Plato (Rep. i. p. 
336), speaking of the fierce sophist Thrasymachus, " I think 
if I had not seen him before he saw me, I should have been 
struck dumb ; " evidently alluding to this notion. Pliny 
(N. H. viii. 34) and Solinus (ii. 35) speak of it as a supersti- 
tion peculiar to Italy ; but beside Plato, Theocritus (xiv. 22) 
notices it thus : Ov (pOeytrj ; Xvkov el^es (eirai'te ns) ws a-ofos 
elirev : on which the scholiast remarks, that they who were 
seen first by a wolf became speechless. Avkov elces must 
therefore be equivalent to, ' You have met a wolf,' the hearers 
from their knowledge of the proverb inferring the rest. Ser- 
vius says that the proverb lupus in fabula was used " quo- 



eclogue ix. 49-60. 127 

tiens supervenit ille de quo loquimur et nobis sua prudentia 
(praesentia?) araputat facultatem loquendi." 

56-65. Causando, by making excuses which he elsewhere 
(Aen. ix. 219) expresses by neclere cansas. — in longum ducts, 
sc. spatium, you increase, draw out. — amoves, desire. Si 
tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros, Aen. ii. 10. — 51. tibi, 
for you. — stratum, laid smooth and level. Sterno answers to 
the Greek oropew, as earopeaev fie debs jueyncjjrea ttovtov, Od. 
iii. 158. ^&\kv6v€S aropevevvn rd Kufiara, Theocr. vii. 57. — 
aequor, sc. campi, says Servius ; but that is plainly a mistake. 
" Intellige lacum," says Heyne, " in quem non longe a Man- 
tua fl. Mincius diffunditur." The only lake however is that 
which surrounds the city of Mantua. Voss understands it of 
the surface of the " wide, swampy " Mincius. We doubt how- 
ever if the word aequor is ever used of the surface of a lake 
or stream. In the passage of Theocritus which our poet ap- 
pears to have had in view, the word corresponding to aequor 
is ttov-os. — 58. Adspice, behold, sc. the surface of the water, 
referring to what he had just described. The ancients how- 
ever often confounded the verbs of seeing and hearing, as in 
the well-known ktvttov oedopica. of Aeschylus, When a verb 
of seeing is used instead of one of hearing, it usually has for 
its object the person from whom the sound proceeds. — ventosi, 
etc. The breezes of windy murmur have fallen, i. e. there is 
no wind at all on land, and the water is at rest. We say our- 
selves the wind has fallen. Aurae zephyri, Geor. ii. 330. — 
59. Hinc adeo, etc., 'just from this spot is half-way to the town.' 
Adeo gives force to the conjunction of time or place with 
which it is joined. — 60. Bianoris. Servius on this place, and 
on Aen. x. 198, says that Bianor was a name of Ocnus the 
founder of Mantua. This statement however, Heyne says, is 
destitute of authority. The name is plainly of Greek, not 
Tuscan, origin. Cato, as quoted by Cerda, says that the 
founder of Mantua was Ocnus Bianorus, a Tuscan prince, 
which would make much in favour of the localities of this 

V. 57. 'HviSe aLyq, jikv ttovtos, aiyoivri §' drjrai. — Theoc. ii. 38. 
V. 59. Kovtto) tclv jieaarav 6Sbv avvfies, ovoe to <rufxa 
'Afilv no BpacriXa tcareipaiveTo. — Id. vii. 10. 



128 BUCOLICS. 

eclogue. — Hie ubi densas, etc., ' let us stop and sing here, 
where the country people are stripping the leaves off the trees.' 
This was either in the arbusta, and therefore done on account 
of the vines, or more probably from the trees in general, which, 
as Columella tells us (xi. 2), were stripped of their leaves in the 
months of July and August for fodder for the cattle. This 
was done, he adds, "antelucanis et vespertinis temporibus." — 
62. tamen ve?iie?mis, etc., ' even though Ave do stop, we shall 
reach the town betimes.' An odd expression, by the way, if 
they were within a mile and a half of Mantua. — 64-. usque 
eamus, we may still be going on. — 65. hoc fasce, " haedorum 
quos portat onere," Heyne after Servius. Might not Moeris 
be carrying something else beside the kids, and Lycidas be 
merely offering to divide the burden with him ? There is no 
other instance, we believe, offascis being applied to animals. 
66, 67. plura, sc. dicere or flagitare. — puer, young man, my 
lad. The last syllable is long, as being in arsis. — et quod in- 
state sc. to bring the kids to my new master. — ipse, sc. Menal- 
cas, the author of them. 

Observations. 

Date. — The probable date of this eclogue is 712-14. See 
the Life of Virgil. 

Subject. — We must also refer the reader to the Life of Virgil 
for the subject of this eclogue, which relates exclusively to the 
poet's personal affairs. 

Characters. — ■Under the person of Menalcas the poet him- 
self is certainly concealed, and Moeris is his villicus or bailiff, 
and consequently a slave or freedman. The condition of Ly- 
cidas is not so easy to determine ; for in v. 22 he seems to 
place himself on a level with Menalcas ; while, from the whole 
tenor of the dialogue, he would not appear to be of a rank 
superior to that of his companion. 

Scenery. — The scene is on the road to a town, apparently 
on the margin of the sea (y. 57), where there is an ancient 
tomb surrounded by trees (60). The farm of Menalcas is 

V. 64. 'A\X' dye St] (%vvd yap 656s, %vvd Se Kai atis) 

BwKo\tatrcwjue(T0a - rax wrepos dWov ovaaei. — Theoc. vii. 35. 



ECLOGUE X. 1-3. 129 

situated on the side of a hill, going down to the edge of a 
stream (7), and on or near it there grew the beech (9), the 
ilex (15), the yew (30). We have already shown that there 
are no hills in the neighbourhood of Mantua, and that the 
ilex does not grow there, and indeed we are not sure that the 
same is not the case with the beech and the yew. We have 
also shown that aequor is never used of a lake or a river. 
It therefore, we think, follows, that the scene is here as ideal 
as in the first eclogue. 



Eclogue X — Gallus. 



Argument. 



In this last of his eclogues, Virgil, in the character of a shep- 
herd, sings, as he is seated on a bank watching his goats at 
feed, and weaving a basket, the unhappy love of his friend Cor- 
nelius Gallus. He supposes Gallus to be in Arcadia, where the 
rural deities and the swains try, but in vain, to console him. 

Notes. 

1-8. He commences by invoking the fountain-nymph Are- 
thusa to aid him in this his last pastoral song. His reason 
for addressing her is, that she, as belonging to Sicily, may be 
regarded as the inspirer of Theocritus, who was his model, 
and whom he imitates in this very piece. For the connexion 
between the Muses and the water-nymphs, see on vii. 21. The 
story of Arethusa and her flight under the sea from Elis, fol- 
lowed by the river-god Alpheus, till she rose as a fountain in 
the island at Syracuse, is well-known. For an explanation of 
the legend, see Mythology, p. 132. — 2. meo Gallo, for my 
friend Gallus. — Lycoris. The name of his faithless mistress. 
— quae legat ipsa, which from their novelty may attract her 
attention and induce her to read them, and may therefore 
make her grieve for and repent her treatment of so faithful a 
lover. — 3. neget quis, etc., 'Who will (i. e. can) refuse to make 

g5 



130 BUCOLICS. 

verses for Gallus ? ' The interpretation of Wagner here is best, 
who places a colon and not a period after dicenda, thus making 
the first three lines one sentence, which adds much to the force 
of the passage. — 4. Sic tibi. See on ix. 30. — Sicanos, i. q. Si- 
cidos. Virgil would appear to have introduced this adjective 
into Latin poetry. By the Sicilian waves is meant the Ionian 
sea, between Greece and Sicily.' — 5. Doris amara, the bitter 
salt-sea. Doris, the wife of Nereus, is used for the sea, like 
Tethys and Amphitrite. — 6. sollicitos, which caused solicitude 
or anxiety. — 7. simae, flat-nosed ; the Greek <n/j.()s ; Theocritus 
has ffifiai epifoi. This word, whether taken from the Greek or 
derived from the common original of the two languages, was 
used, it is said, by Naevius (ap. Nonium), Lascivum Nerei 
simum peats. But this, which seems to be part of a hexameter, 
belongs more probably to Laevius, who is so often confounded 
with the elder poet. — 8. respondent, i. e. re-echo. 

9-12. Na'ides. Ye nymphs, i. e. the natural protectors of 
poets, of whom Gallus was one. The Na'ides were properly 
water-nymphs, but the poets used the names of the various 
classes indifferently for the general term Nymphs. Thus Ovid 
(Met. i. 690) says, Inter Hamadryadas celeberrima Nonacrinas 
Naias unafuit. — 10. indigno, unworthy of him, such as he 
did not deserve to meet with. — cum peribat. This is the cor- 
rected reading of the Medicean MS.; it is also found in 
two others, and is adopted by Voss, Wagner, Jahn and For- 
biger ; the common reading is periret. Cum with the indie, 
expresses simply the time of an event ; with the subj., the time 
with an indication of the cause. — 11. Nam neque Parnassi, 
etc., ' for you were not on Mount Parnassus or Pindus, or at 
the fount of Aganippe on Helicon, your usual haunts.' As 
these were all places frequented by the Muses, it would seem 
that the poet employs the term Na'ides for these goddesses. 
It does not appear how the goddesses, by being in any of these 
distant places, could have aided Gallus, who was in Arcadia ; 

V. 9. Jla ttok dp' 7)0', okcl Adtyvis erdiceTO, irq, noKa, Nvpipai ; 
"H Kara UrjveLu) Ka\d rejxirea, r) Kara Hivdcj ; 
Ov yap Crj ■KOTapH} ye pkyav poov el^er' 'AvaTrcj, 
Ovd' Alrvas UKOTtidv, ov5"Xkicos Upbv ilcup. — Theoc. i. 66. 



ECLOGUE X. 4-19. 131 

and the whole passage looks like a bad imitation of Theo- 
critus, in whom everything is natural and consonant. Could 
it be that he meant to hint that the poetic spirit had deserted 
Gallus along with Lycoris? — 12. moramfecere, detained you, 
answering to the hahuere of v. 9. — Aoaie, the Greek 'Aovtrj. 
Aonia was an ancient or poetic name of Boeotia. For the 
hiatus, see on ii. 24. 

13-18. All nature mourned the undeserved fate of Gallus, 
the plants, the wood-clad mountains, the animals. — etiam, 
even, the very. — lauri. The final i is not elided, as being the 
arsis; seeiii.6. — 15. Maenalus and Lycaeus, well-known moun- 
tains of Arcadia. — 16. Stant et oves circum. The sheep lea- 
ving to feed stand gazing at and pitying Gallus as he lies 
stretched under his solitary rock. — nostri nee, etc., they are not 
ashamed of us ; on the contrary, they feel for our affliction?. 
Paenitere is used to indicate contempt. Perhaps we are to 
understand Galli, or it may be poetae, from next verse with 
nostri. See Bentley on Hor. S. ii. 6, 48, where however, in- 
stead of making noster i. q. nos, we would understand a subst. 
with it, as also in the verse from Plautus (Epid. i. 2, 44.). 
— nee te, etc., ' nor should you, though a divine poet, be 
ashamed of the sheep, or scorn to be represented as lying 
among them ; for the lovely Adonis himself fed a flock.' As 
the Daphnis of Theocritus is a neatherd, Virgil might appear to 
give Gallus the character of a shepherd. The shepherd-life 
of Adonis occurs only in Theocritus. 

19-21. upilio, shepherd, instead of opilio, for the sake of 
the metre. — tardi suhulci. This is the reading of all the MSS. 
and of Servius and the older editions, and is adopted by Wag- 
ner, Jahn and Forbiger. The common reading, bubulci, has 
only in its favour two places of Apuleius, in which he speaks 
of Virgil's opiliones and bubsequas. It is objected that tardus 
agrees better with the neatherd than the swineherd ; but all 

V. 13. Tfjvov [idv 6u)E9, t?)vov \vkoi dipvcravro, 

Trjvov x<I>K SpvjjioTo Xewv aveicXavffe Qavovra. — Theoc. i. 71. 

V. 18. 'Qpcuos x'"®Bo)vls, eirel /ecu fiaXa vofievet, 

Kai 7rrwicas jSa'Wei, ical Oijpia iravTa Siwicei. — Id. i, 109. 



132 BUCOLICS. 

who are in the habit of following cattle acquire a slow, loiter- 
ing gait. Nunc intra muros pastoris buccina lenti Cantal. 
Prop. iv. 10, 29. It is also said that Menalcas, in the follow- 
ing verse, is the swineherd, but the poet says no such thing ; 
he merely says that he had been gathering acorns ; and, as 
Varro and Columella inform us, acorns were given to oxen as 
well as to swine : in fact all kinds of cattle feed on acorns. 
We may further observe that Arcadia was famous for breed- 
ing swine, and this may have led the poet to mention the 
swineherds. Finally, the critics seem not to be aware that 
lubulcus is a ploughman, and not a neatherd, and that the 
poetic Arcadia is not a tillage country. — 20. Uvidus, dripping. 
The acorns do not fall till toward winter, or rather in the 
winter, in the south, so that the persons that gather them are 
not unfrequently drenched with rain. We regard as a very 
forced interpretation, that of making Menalcas be wet from 
having been engaged in steeping acorns in water for the cattle. 
21-30. The rural deities Apollo Nomios, Silvanus and Pan 
now come to console him. — 22. cura, the. object of your care, 
your mistress. — 23. Perque wives, etc. See Life of Gallus. — 
24. Venit ct agresti, etc. Silvanus comes with the rural honour 
of his head (sc. the wreath of fennel and lilies), shaking the 
flowery fennel and the large lilies (of which it was composed). 
Silvanus being an Italian, not a Grecian, rural god, should not 
have been in Arcadia, did the Latin poets (what they surely 
did not) aim at the correctness of costume, etc. of the modern 
German poets. See on viii. 36. As the fennel and the lily are 
both very tall plants (see the Flora), perhaps we are to con- 
ceive Silvanus as bearing them in his hands, and not on his 
head. Cf. Aen. v. 855; vi. 587; ix. 521. For Silvanus, see 
Mythology, p. 536. — 26. deus Arcadiae, the god of Arcadia, 
the deity principally worshiped there. — quern vidimus ipsi, etc. 
Voss interprets this, 'whom we ourselves (sc. I and Gallus) 
saw ruddy,' etc. The other interpreters seem to understand 

V. 19. ''B.vQov rot fiwrai, roi KOi^cves, <i>Tro\oi r\vQov. 

ILdvres dvijpwrevv ri rrdOoi kcikov. rjvQ' 6 IIpi?j7ros 

Krj(pa, Adtyvi rdXav. tl tv rdiceai; a de re Kbjpa 

Ilacras dvd Kpdvas, Travr dXaea ttoggI (popetrai. — Theoc. i. 80. 



ECLOGUE X. 19-33. 133 

it as, ' whom (i. e. whose statue) I myself have seen ruddy/ 
etc. Voss however refers us to passages where Horace and 
other poets speak of the statue of Priapus as being painted 
red, as also those of Bacchus and the Satyrs. He moreover 
notices the statue of Jupiter on the Capitol, which was painted 
red, and the custom of the Roman generals, when triumphing 
and attired as Jupiter, to have their faces tinged with minium. 
The only place however in which Pan is red is Silius, xiii. 332, 
Ac parva erumpiint rubicunda cornua fronte, where it is evi- 
dently the natural ruddiness of the god that is noticed. For 
Pan, see Mythology. — 27. ebuli, of the dwarf elder. — minio. 
The Latin minium, was the sulphate of mercury, the Greek 
KLwafiapi, our cinnabar or vermilion. It came chiefly from 
Spain, whose quicksilver mines of Almaden are still prolific. 
It was said to be a Spanish word, and to have given name to 
the river Minius (Minho). This however is rather dubious, 
as the mines were and are in Andalusia, and the river is 
in Gallicia. — 2S. Ecquis erit modus ? sc. tuis lacrimis et sus- 
piriis. Cf. Aen. iv. 98. — Amor, i. e. the god (not the passion) 
who aypia TcaLvlei, as the poet Moschus says, Idyll i. 11. 

31-34. at. This word indicates that what the gods had 
said had not removed his grief. — Tamen, etc., 'nevertheless, 
though I have derived no consolation from what the gods 
have said to me, I find some in the reflection that my woes 
may become the subject of your songs, ye Arcadians!' For 
the Arcadian song and music, see on vii. 5. Servius observes 
that some (with whom he did not agree) joined tamen ilk. 
At and tamen would thus be attamen divided by tmesis, and 
Jahn says, " Utrum poetae placuerit, in tali verborum struc- 
tura, vix quisquam dicet." — 33. O mild turn, etc., according 
with the well-known formula Sit tibi terra levis. This arises 
from the difficulty which mankind in general feel in separating 
the idea of the soul from that of the body. Thus we ourselves 
say, ' Such a one would not rest in his grave if he knew so 
and so,' and similar expressions. According to Plato (Phaed. 
p. 115), Socrates jested on this notion, in his usual manner, 
the last day of his life ; for when Crito asked him how he 
would wish to be buried, "Just as you please," replied he, 



134 BUCOLICS. 

" provided you can catch me and I don't escape you." Then 
giving a quiet laugh, and turning to his friends, he added, " T 
cannot persuade Crito that I that am now conversing with 
you, and arranging all parts of the discourse, am Socrates ; but 
he thinks that which he will presently see dead to be me," 
etc. Among the ancient Scandinavians (see our Popular Fic- 
tions, p. 278.) it was a belief that the tears of the surviving 
relatives fell on the breast of the deceased and caused them pain. 
This was a salutary superstition, as it served to check immode- 
rate grief. — quiescant. He uses the proes. subj. because he can 
only express a hope or a wish. Some MSS. read quiescunt. 

35— 11. From reflecting on the pastoral life of the Arcadians, 
he is led to wish that he had been one of them, or even 
(as Voss perhaps rightly understands it) one of their slaves. 
Heyne (with whom Forbiger agrees) finds fault here with the 
poet, for making Gallus, whom he had represented in the cha- 
racter of a shepherd, reveal that he was not one. He excuses 
him by his youth, and his desire to gratify his powerful pro- 
tectors. But the poet stands in need of no such apology, 
for he had nowhere represented Gallus as a shepherd, he had 
only placed him lying under a rock in Arcadia. — 36. vinitor. 
" Aut custos aut cultor vinearum." Servius. — 38. furor, love ; 
like cura, ignis, Jlamma. — 39. Et nigrae, etc. See on ii. 16. — 

40. Jfecum inter salices, etc. We would, with Voss and Jahn, 
put a comma after salices, and understand aut after it. Willows 
and vines are, we believe, rarely found growing together. — 

41. serta, sc. flowers to form garlands. 

42, 43. With the true inconsistency of a distracted lover, 
he passes to Lycoris, and wishes her to be the companion of 
his rustic state. He enumerates the rural objects that might 
give her pleasure, and passionately declares that he could pass 
his whole life with her here. — ipso aevo, by old-age itself, to 
denote the durability of his love. Ibat rex obsitus aevo, Aen. 
viii. 307 ; aevo confectus Acoetes, xi. 85. 

44-49. From this dream of Arcadian bliss his mind now 
returns to the real state of their affairs, namely, that he is en- 

V. 39. Kai to lov jxeXav evri, tcai a ypanTa vo.kiv9os.~- Theoc. x. 28. 



eclogue x. 33-52. 135 

in military service in one quarter, while she is the com- 
panion of one who is serving in another. Heyne adopted a 
reading proposed by a critic named Heumann, viz. te instead 
of me, the reading of all the MSS., but he has found no fol- 
lowers. In fact his objection to me only rests on the false 
supposition which we have noticed above, that Gallus was re- 
presented as an inhabitant, and not merely a visitor, of the 
Arcadian mountains. But surely there is no absurdity in sup- 
posing Gallus, though engaged in military service, to have 
made, or to be feigned to have made, an excursion into Ar- 
cadia. What if, at this very time, he should have been, as we 
term it, quartered in Greece or in the south of Italy? — Nunc, 
but now. — insanus amor, mad love, i. e. love that maketh 
mad ; the cause for the effect. — detinet, keeps me, sc. far from 
Lycoris. — 46. nee sit mihi credere, ' let me not believe.' By a 
common construction the infin. mood with the words it governs 
is the nom. to the verb. Thus Tibull. i. 7, 24, Tunc mihi non 
oculis sit timuisse meis, and Propert. i. 20, 13, Nee mihi sit 
duros monies elfrigida saxa Adire. — tantum, sc. nefas. Quid 
mens Aeneas in te committere tantum, quid Troes potuere ? 
Aen. i. 231. Some join tantum with the preceding procul. 
Servius observes on this verse, " Hi autem omnes versus Galli 
sunt, de ipsius translati carminibus." But he does not tell us 
which they are, or how many there are of them ; perhaps 44 
-49 — 47- Alpinas, etc., because she had gone with the army 
to Gaul. — 48. sola, alone, separated from me. Like dura in 
the preceding verse, it qualifies Lycoris, and notfrigora. 

50-54. He now declares that, as a remedy for his love, he 
will devote himself to poetry and music. — Ibo, et, etc., ' I will 
go hence and form into pastorals the verses that I have made 
from Euphorion.' This was a poet born at Chalcis in Euboea 
in the Alexandrian period. He was librarian to Antiochus 
the Great, king of Syria, and he made comedies, elegies, and 
a work in five books called Moxpoma (i. e. Attica), consisting 
of mythic narratives. His style was harsh and obscure. 
Gallus would seem to have adopted his matter, not his manner. 
— 51. pastoris Siculi, Theocritus. — modulabor, see on v. 14. 
— 52. spelaea, i. q. spekmca, the Greek crTrfiXcua.—pati, sc. 



136 BUCOLICS. 

meos amoves. — 53. ineidere, see on v. 14. — amoves, perhaps 
i. q. amovcm, and it may be the name of Lycoris, or of some 
other fair one ; or love verses. — 51. Crescent illae, etc. " Hoc 
vero, si quid aliud, Virgiliana elegantia dignum," Heyne. 

55-61. Amidst these more tranquil occupations I will at 
times take the more stirring exercise of the chase. Interea is 
here i. q. inter ea. — mixtis Nymphis, i. q. permixtus Nymphis. 
Thus Prop. ii. 25, 57, Ut regnam mixtas inter conviva puellas. 
— lustrabo, I will range. Voss interprets this of joining in 
the dances of the nymphs, and no doubt lustrare is used of 
dancing (Aen. vii. 391 ; x. 224) ; but the former interpreta- 
tion is we think to be pi'eferred. — 56. acres, spirited, fierce, 
dovpeovs, Ovpuicets. — 57. Parihenios. Mount Parthenius lay 
on the confines of Arcadia and Argolis. — 58. Jam mild, etc. 
In imagination he now follows the chase, with the huntress- 
nymphs, over rocks and through woods, sending the arrows 
from his bow at the Hying game. — lucos sonanles, sc. with the 
baying of the dogs and the shouts of the hunters. Perhaps how- 
ever it is only a poetic epithet of woods, which yield a sound 
when agitated by the wind. — 59. Pavilw, etc. Parthian and 
Cydonian are merely epitheta ornantia, as the Parthians and 
Cretans were the nations most famed for archery. Cydonia 
w r as one of the principal towns of Crete. — covnu, from the 
bow. The most ancient bows were made of the horns of 
goats : see II. iv. 105. — 60. tanquam, etc., 'I am planning these 
things as if they, or anything else, were a remedy for my love.' 
— 61. dcus ille, etc, ' that god (i. e. Love) would ever learn pity 
from the evils which he sees men suffering through his means.' 

62-69. ' Now again I see no use in employing myself in 
poetry or in hunting ; for nothing, as I said, will change the 
relentless nature of that deity.' — Hamadvyades, nymphs in ge- 
neral. See on v. 10. — ipsa, verses themselves, from which I 
expected more than from anything else — 63. concedite, give 
way, retire, as it were, ye avail nothing. — 64. Non ilium, etc. 
' No toils that I may endure, hunting or keeping cattle, even in 
the most adverse regions of the earth, will avail to drive the 
love of Lycoris from my bosom.' — 65. Nee si, etc., 'not if, 
as a hunter or herdsman, I endure all the rigours of a Thracian 



ECLOGUE X. 53-73. 137 

winter.' The Hebrus is a river of Thrace, which was also 
called Sithonia, from the town of Sithone. — 66. aquosae. 
This is merely a usual epithet of hiems, which the poet uses 
without reflecting that it does not accord with nives. — 67. 
liber, the inner bark, here taken for the bark in general. — ctret, 
is quite dried, burnt up with the great heat in the region be- 
yond the equinoctial line. — 68. Aethiopum versemus ovis, ' I 
should keep the flocks of the Aethiopians.' Versare is the Greek 

7roAe?// (whence clittoXos oIottoXos") to drive, to pasture sub 

sidere Cancri, i. e. under the northern tropic. — Omnia, etc. 
He sagely concludes : ' Since Love conquers everything, there 
is no use in struggling any more ; I may as well yield to him.' 
70-77. The poet concludes in his own person. Forgetting, 
as it were, that it was the nymph Arethusa that he had in- 
voked in the commencement, he now addresses the Muses in 
general. — 71. Dum sedet. " Praesens interpositum pertinet 
ad cecinisse, ut Aen. x. 55-58." Wunderlich. See on vii. 6. 
We might have expected the imperf. of sedeo, but the neces- 
sities of the metre often induced the poets to take liberties 
with the tenses of verbs, and the numbers of both verbs and 
nouns, which prose writers could not allow themselves, and 
which critics employ useless ingenuity in explaining and de- 
fending. In the same way the poets of modern Italy and the 
Spanish peninsula frequently employ the imperf. instead of 
the perf. tense of verbs, for the sake of rime, as is proved by 
these inaccuracies occurring only at the end of lines. To the 
same cause (the necessities of the verse) may be ascribed the 
mixtures of past and present tenses by our own poets.— -fiscel- 
lam. The Jiscella was a basket of rushes, or as here of hi- 
biscus, used for making cheese. Colum. vii. 8, 3. — Jiibisco. See 
ii. 30. It is called gracilis, slender, as the rods of it which 
he was using were such.- — 72. maxima, of very great value in 
the eyes of. — 73. cvjus amor, etc., ' for whom my love in- 



V. 65. E'irjs 8' 'HSwvwv fiev Iv a/peci ^ei'ftan fiecao^y 

"Efipov Trap Trorafiov re-pajxfievos eyyvQev apKTW, 
'Ev Se Oepei Tvvjxa.Toiai Trap' AiQioTceaoi vo/zewois, 
Uerpainrb B\ef.wu>v, '66ev ovk en NetXos oparos. — Theoc.vii.lll. 



138 BUCOLICS. 

creases hourly, as the green alder grows in the early spring.' 
— 74. se subjicit, grows up, throws itself up from beneath, 
from the ground. Cf. Geor. iv. 385 ; Aen. xii. 288. — 75. Sur- 
gamus, the first pers. plur. of the imper. though he speaks only 
of one person ; for there is no first pers. sing. But perhaps he 
means himself and the Muses. — solet esse, etc. He probably 
had in view these lines of Lucretius vi. 783 : Arboribus pri- 
nt///// certis gravis umbra tributa Usque adeo capitis faciant 
ut saepe dolores. — cantantibus. If the shade was injurious 
in general, it must have been so to singers: the poet only 
therefore gives a particular instance of a general effect. — 76. 
Juniperi. He would seem to intimate that there was some- 
thing particularly noxious in the shade of the juniper, and at 
the same time, that he was sitting under or near one of these 
trees. Marty n however says that the smell of the juniper is 
considered to be rather wholesome. — nocent umbrae. We be- 
lieve there is no other reason for the use of the plural here 
than the one assigned above. Every farmer knows how in- 
jurious trees are to corn, and what a pest the close hedge- 
rows of elm are in this country. — Ite domum, etc. See vii. 44. 
— venit Hesperus, the evening star is appearing, the sun is 
setting. 

Observations. 

Date. — The date of this last of our author's bucolic poems 
is probably 714-16. See Life of Gallus. 

Sid/ject. — The subject is the love of the poet's friend Gal- 
lus for a mistress who had deserted him. See Life of Gallus. 
In order to give his composition a greater degree of poetic 
ornament, and to be able to imitate some passages of his fa- 
vourite first idyll of Theocritus, he adopted the bucolic form, 
and laid the scene in Arcadia. It is one of his best eclogues, 
for it is on a subject in the description of which he excels, 
having studied it carefully, perhaps in Apollonius Rhodius. 

Characters and Scenery — On these points we have here no 
remarks to make. 



NOTES 

ON 

THE GEORGICS, 

BOOK I. 



Argument. 

X roposition, 1-5. Invocation, 6-42. Ploughing, 43-70. 
Fallowing, rotation, etc. 71-99. Irrigating, 100-117. Di- 
gression on the Golden and succeeding Age, 118-146. Ene- 
mies of the corn, 147-159. Implements, 160-175. Thresh- 
ing-floor, 176-186. Signs of a good or bad harvest, 187-192. 
Preparing the seed, 193-203. Proper times for sowing dif- 
ferent kinds of grain, 204-230. Description of the celestial 
sphere, the zones, etc. 231-256- Work to be done on rainy- 
days and holidays, 257-275 ; on certain days of the month, 
276-286 ; at night, by day, in summer, in winter, 287-310. 
Description of a summer-storm, 311-334. Remedies against 
it, worship of Ceres, 335-350. Signs of an approaching 
storm, 351-392. Signs of fine weather, 393-423. Signs in 
the moon, 424-437- Signs in the sun, 438-463. Prodigies 
that followed the death of Julius Caesar, 464-488. Civil war, 
489-i97. Prayer for Caesar Octavianus, 498-514. 

Notes. 

1-5. Quid faciat, etc. In these opening lines the poet 
briefly gives the subject of the four books of his poem, 
namely tillage, planting, grazing, and the keeping of bees. 
The gradation, as has been observed, is very natural and cor- 



140 GEORGICS. 

rect, from grasses and leguminous plants to trees, thence to 
animals, and terminating with those social insects which ap- 
proach nearest to man in their instinct. — -faciat, may make. 
The potential is the best suited to a didactic work, as the pre- 
cepts are somewhat hypothetic. — laetas segeles, joyous (i. e. 
fruitful) cornfield s. Laetas segetes etiam rustici diciint, Cic. 
De Or. iii. 38; agcr crassus et laetus, Cato R. R. 6; and per- 
haps (as laetamen is manure) the original sense of this adj. 
may have been fruitful, abundant. For seges, see Terms of 
Husbandry, s. v — quo sidere, at what time, at the rising or 
setting of what constellation. As we shall see, the rural la- 
bours of the ancients were regulated by the times of the rising 
and setting of the Pleiades and other constellations. — terram 
vcrtere, sc. aratro : see Hor. S. i. 1 , 28 ; or with the bidens, 
Coll.iv.5. It is the plough that is intended here. — 2. Maecenas. 
The celebrated C. Cilnius Maecenas, at whose desire he wrote 
the poem : see Life of Virgil, and Hist, of Roman Empire, 
p.17. — ulmis, etc. See on Ec. iii. 10. — S.cidtus, attention, care. 
It is merely a variation of the expression, being nearly equi- 
valent to the preceding cura. Quae quidem (oves) neque ali 
neque sustentari neque ullum fructum edere ex se sine cultu 
hominum et curatione potuissent, Cic. de N. D. ii. 63. — 
habendo pccori, for keeping small cattle : not as Heyne ex- 
plains it, " pecoris quod quis possidet s. alit." Habendo is the 
dat. of the gerund : see Zumpt, § 664. For pecori, see Terms 
of Husbandry, s.v. — 4-. experientia, experience, sc. of the bee- 
master, habendis being understood with a pibns. It is little 
more than another variation of the cura of v. 3. Cf. iv. 316. — 
parcis. Some MSS. read parvis, one paucis, joining it with 
the following words. With Servius and Voss we regard par- 
cis as an adjective qualifying apibus, and signifying thrifty, 
frugal. Pliny (xi. 19, 21) says of bees, Caetero perparcae et 
quae alioqui prodigas atque edaces non secus ac pigras atque 
ignavas proturbent. Wagner however (with whom Forbiger 
as usual agrees,) says that parens is not here (j)eic6/j.evos, 
sparing, but a-drws, scanty, few (see iii. 403) ; and that it 
expresses the difficulty of keeping up, and still more of in- 
creasing, the stocks of bees ; a difficulty of which, even in 



BOOK I. 1-9. 141 

this country, we are not aware. He adds, that it would not 
be appropriate, in a brief argument of this kind, to use an 
epithet taken from the nature of the insect. Hoblyn (refer- 
ring to iii. 239) applies parcis to the bee-masters in the sense 
of protecting, — 5. Mine, i. e. ex his, korum partem, rw afioQev 
(Od. i. 10), a form indicating modesty. Cf. ii. 444 ; iii. 308 ; 
Hor. S. i. 4, 6 ; Ov. Fast. v. 509. 

5-24. Having proposed the argument of his ]Doem, he now 
proceeds to invoke the deities who presided over the subjects 
of his work. — 5. Vos, o clarissima, etc., sc. Sol and L una. — 
6. labentem, gliding, to denote the noiseless pace of time. — 7. 
Liber et alma Ceres. These two deities are invoked together, 
because they were joint givers of increase to the earth, and had 
a common temple at Rome. See Mythology, p. 517. It is a 
very erroneous notion of some critics, that they are the lumina 
of the preceding verse, and are therefore Sun and Moon ; for 
if in some mysteries the Grecian Bacchus (with whom Liber I 
was identified) was regarded as the Sun, we are yet to learn 
that Demeter, or the Roman Ceres, was anywhere held to be 
the Moon. It was, we believe, her daughter Persephone that I 
was united with Bacchus in this manner. At all events, as 
Voss sensibly observes, Virgil would hardly commence a poem 
intended to be popular with a dogma of the Mysteries, which 
could be known to very few of his readers. Varro, in the 
opening of his prose work (and perhaps Virgil was following 
him), invokes, after Jupiter and Tellus, Sol and Luna, and 
then Ceres and Liber. For the absence of the copula be- 
tween annum and Liber, see on v. 498. Cf. ii. 6 ; iv. 243, 546. 
— alma. See on Ec. viii. 17- — vestro, etc., i. e. 'by your gifts 
(i. e. the knowledge of tillage and of the culture of the vine, 
of which you were the inventors,) men exchanged mast and 
acorns for corn, as their food, and water for wine and water, as 
their drink.' — si, causal, i. q. cum or quod. — 8. Chaoniam glan- 
dem, Chaonian mast, such as grew in the woods of Epirus : 
see on Ec. ix. 13. For glans, see the Flora, s. v. — pingui 
arista, large rich grains of corn. Thus Ps. lxxxi. 17, we meet 
with " the fat of wheat." Arista, the awn or beard, is put for 
the grain or the ear. — 9. Pocida Acheloia, their cups of water. 



142 GEORGICS. 

Aclieloiis, the river flowing between Aetolia and Acarnania 
in Greece, is frequently used by the poets for water in gene- 
ral, for which practice we have seen no just cause assigned. 
— id-is, sc. vino, the producer for the produced. Donee eras 
mixtus nullis, Acheloe, racemis, Ov. Fast. v. 343, is a similar 
mode of expression. — praesentia numina. See on Ec. i. 42. — 
10. Fauui, etc. The Italian Fauns are here joined with the 
Grecian Dryads in the usual manner. For Faunus, see Mytho- 
logy, p. 537. One- MS. for Fauni in v. 1 1 reads Satyri, and 
Heyne was inclined to approve of it, considering the repeti- 
tion to be somewhat frigid : but it is in reality quite the con- 
trary ; for, as Wagner justly observes, it makes the passage 
more vivid. — 11. Fertepedem, sc. hue, come hither. Abite Illuc 
itnde malum pedem tulistis, Catull. xiv. 21 ; pedem intro non 
feres, Plant. Men. iv. 3, 18. Our nautical phrase, bear-a-hand, 
i. e. come help, is analogous. — 12. Munera vestra. Here vestra 
refers to all the deities whom he had named. The gifts of 
the Fauns and Wood-nymphs seem to be the trees and their 
fruits. 

12. Tuque, etc. He now proceeds to the deities presiding 
over the subjects of his two last books. The assigning the 
production of the horse to Neptune has no reference, as has 
been erroneously supposed, to his contest with Minerva for 
the naming of Athens. It rather refers to the legend of his 
producing the first horse, Scyphio s, by a stroke of his trident 
in Thessaly. See Mythology, p. 86. — prima tellus i. q. tellus 
primum. " Prima tellus est ea quae antea equum nondum 
viderat et turn primum protulit," Jahn. See on Ec. i. 45. — 
13. Fudit, poured forth, teemed, as Milton expresses it, Par. 
Lost, vii. 454. Tempore quo primum tellus animalia fudit, 
Lucr. v. 915, which verse Virgil had probably in view. — 14. 
cultor nemorum, dweller of the woods. Aristaeus, the son of 
Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, the inventor of the art of 
keeping bees. See iv. 315 ; Mythology, p. 329. — eui, through 
whom, through whose. — pinguia dumeta. Dumetum (durnus, 
briar, bramble) is a thicket, and the epithet pinguia refers to 
the luxuriant herbage that grew among the bushes. Thus we 
have ping ues horti, iv. 118. In like manner tondent, shear, 



book i. 9-24. 14-3 

(i. e. browse, crop) refers also to the grass. — Ceae, of the isle of 
Cea or Ceos, one of the Cyclades in the Aegean sea, where 
Aristaeus was greatly honoured. — 15. Ter centum, a def. for 
an indef. number. — 16. Ipse, thou thyself, as being of greater 
importance than Aristaeus. See on Ec.v. 72. Pan was the great 
god of Arcadia, in which were the mountains Lycaeus and 
Maenalus and the town of Tegea, from which he is here named. 
For Maenala, see on Ec. x. 55. — 17. tua si tibi, etc., if (see on 
v.7) thou care for thy Maenalus, i. e. its pastures and the sheep 
that graze them. — 18. oleaeque, etc. From Arcadia he passes 
to Attica, whose patron goddess gave mankind the olive, and 
whence Triptolemus spread the art of tillage. — 1 9. unci, crooked. 
The reason of this epithet may be seen in the Terms of Hus- 
bandry, s, v. aratrum. — puer. In the legend he is represented 
as quite a youth. See Mythology, p. 176. — 20. Et teneram, etc. 
The Italian god Silvanus, the guardian of cattle and bounda- \ 
ries, was usually represented bearing a young cypress plant. 
See Mythology, p. 536, and Plate XII. — ab radice, i. e. radi- 
citus, plucked up with the root, root and all. Forbiger would 
connect ab radice with teneram, and understand it all tender, 
root and all. We prefer the former more obvious interpreta- 
tion : see Ec. i. 54. — 21. Digue, deaeque omnes, etc. Under 
this head he groups the host of deities that, according to the 
Roman religion, presided over the country and the operations 
of agriculture, such as Occator Sarritor, Collina Seia, etc. 
See Mythology, p. 540. — novas fruges, the new (i.e. young) 
plants. As it is only some kinds of trees that he says (ii. 10) 
grow without seed, it must be them that he means here. — 
22. non ullo semine, without any seed, spontaneous : see ii. 10 
seq. Midcebant zephyri natos sine semine flares, Ov. Met. i. 
108. — 23. largum imbrem, copious showers of rain on the 
corn-fields. 

24-42. " Post decs agrestes, ex notissima Romanorum adu- 
latione, Caesarem invocat tanquam deum mox futurum." 
Heyne. He should have observed that this is the very first 
instance of that species of adulation. On this deification of 
Caesar, see on Ec. i. 6. — 24. deorum concilia. Concilium (from 
con-calo, to call together, Festus) is i. q. coetus, congregatio. 



.HK 



144 GEORGICS. 

Cicero uses the expression concilium deornm or caelestium 
The poet supposes an assembly or deliberative society of each 
class of deities. He employs the plural for the singular with 
the usual poetic licence. — 25. urbisne invisere,to inspect, to have 
the care of. We may observe that velis governs both invisere 
and curam. Forbiger refers to Ec. v. 46, 47 ; vi. 74 ; Aen. i. 
124; vii. 421. — 26. maximus orbis, sc. terrarum, the entire 
earth. In a usual sense of the superlative (see on Ec. vii. 49) 
maximus is i. q. permagnus. — 27. tempestatum potenlcm, the 
ruler of the weather, the author of the changes of the atmo- 
sphere ; not merely of the winds or seasons, which however are 
included. I t_may be here observed that tempestas was orig inally 
i. q. temp us. See Varro, L. L. vii. 51 ; Sail. Cat. 17. It then 
came to signify a portion of time, as a year, etc., Sail. Cat. 57; 
Jug. 101 ; Liv. i. 5 : in Horace postera tempestas (S. i. 5. 96) 
seems to be the next day. It was next the weather or state of 
the atmosphere : Cum temjJestas adridet, Lucr. ii. 32 ; liqui- 
dissima caeli temjjestas, Id. iv. 1 70. It finally signified storm, 
tempest, mala or advcrsa being understood as in the parallel 
case of valetudo. There should be a comma dSteY frugum, for 
auctorem and potentem are both to be regarded as substantives. 
— 28. cingeiis, sc. orbis, a fine image, representing the whole 
human race as uniting to crown Caesar with a myrtle-wreath 
in acknowledgment of his descent from the goddess to whom 
the myrtle was sacred. — maierna. The Julian gens claimed a 
descent from Venus. — 29. An deus, etc. If you will not be a 
terrestrial deity, but prefer to rule over the sea, Tethys will 
give you one of the Ocean-Nymphs, her daughters, in marriage, 
and transfer to you her whole dominion. — venias, i. e.futurus 
sis, you will be. Venio sometimes occurs in the sense of sum, 
as Aen. v. 344 ; hence it is that the modern Italians use their 
verb venire for essere. — 30. Numina, i. q. numen, like concilia, 
v. 25. — sola, i. e. praecipue, quasi sola. — ultima Thule. The 
Zetland islands. Tac. Agric. 10. It was probably, like Hes- 
peria, Eridanus, and so many others, originally an indefinite 
name, which was finally restricted to these islands. — 31. emat, 
purchase. In the heroic times the wooer purchased his wife 
in some measure by giving large presents to herself and her 



book i. 25-41. 145 

family. Among the Greeks of later times and the Romans, J {/*■{/& I 
the wife brought a dower. — Anne, etc., ' Or if, scorning alike 
land and sea, you will be a celestial deity, you may become 
one of the signs of the zodiac' It was an old opinion thatjhe 
souls of men became stars : see Aristoph. Pax, 832. — tardis, 
slow, i. e. the summer-months, when the days are longest, and 
therefore the course of the sun apparently slowest. This is 
clear from the position which he assigns him. — Qua locus, etc. 
In Virgil's time the space between the sign of Virgo (named 
Erigone, from the daughter of Icarus), or Astraea, and that 
of the folloiving Scorpion, now occupied by Libra, was vacant, 
or only occupied by the chelas or claws of this last. As Astraea j 
was Dike or Justice, there is a delicate flattery of Caesar in! 
assigning him that position. — Chelas, i. e. xqXhs, by which the 
Greeks expressed cloven feet as well as claws. — ardens, bright. 
—justa plus parte, i. e. 'more than you have a strict right to' ; 
in token of reverence for the new deity. — 36. nam te nee, ' for 
let not Tartarus expect you as its ruler, let not such a dire 
love of sway possess your mind.' — nee, i. q. non. — Tartara. 
This was originally the prison of the Titans beneath the earth, 
but it gradually was confounded with Erebus, the abode of 
departed men, and then became that portion of it in which 
the wicked were punished. See Mythology, pp. 39, 91. We 
may observe that Virgil uses it here in a large sense as synony- 
mous with Erebus. — sperent. Some MSS-, which are followed 
by Wagner and Forbiger, read sperant. — dira cupido. Lu- 
cretius has dira libido (iv. 1040) and dira cuppidine (iv. 1084). 
— miretur, admire, i. e. celebrate, extol. — repetita, recalled, 
asked to leave it: see Aen. vii. 241. Filium istinc tuum te 
melius est repetere, Plaut. True. iv. 3, 72. — sequi curat, cares 
to follow, i. e. will not follow. We use our verb care exactly 
in this sense. — Proserpina. The rape of this goddess by Pluto 
is a well-known legend: see Mythology, p„ 171. — Dafacilem 
cursum, 'give an easy or prosperous course'; a metaphor 
taken from navigation. — audacibus, etc., ' favour my daring 
enterprise,' namely, that of being the first to write a poem on 
agriculture in the Latin language: see ii. 175. — 41. Ignaros 
viae. He calls the husbandmen so, either in a general way as all 

H 



146 GEORGICS. 

those to whom precepts are given are supposed to have been 
previously ignorant of them ; or, as the commentators say, be- 
cause, on account of the civil wars, the proscriptions and the 
confiscations of the lands, the rural population had been di- 
minished and agriculture neglected. — mecum. This is to be 
taken with miseratus, not with ignaros. — Ingredere, proceed, 
advance. Cf. Aen. viii. 513 — assuesce, sc te. 

43-49. The poet commences his precepts with the spring- 
ploughing of the land. — Vere novo, in the beginning of the 
•spring (ea£os vkov la rapeiq ioj Od. xix. 519), that is, in the 
month of February. The Roman spring began between the 
nones and ides of this month, when the west-wind Favonius 
or Zephyrus began to blow, and it ended toward the middle 
of May. Columella xi. 2. — canis, hoary, i. e. covered with snow. 
— loquitur, flows. — Zephgro, to the west-wind, under its in- 
fluence : a dat. case. — putris ffhba, the mellow, crumbly, 
friable soil. This is probably not to be understood of lea or 
fresh land, but of land which had been cultivated the pre- 
ceding year : see ii. 202. Such land, after having been ex- 
posed to the frosts of the winter, becomes friable in the spring. 
— jam tarn, then, emphatic ; now then, immediately, without 
any delay. Cf. ii. 405 ; Aen. vii. 643 ; viii. 349; x. 533 — mihi : 
see on Ec. viii. 6. — Depresso aratro, pressed down, sc. by the 
ploughman pressing with his whole might on the stiva or 
handle. — taumcs. As in Ec. i. 46. he uses tauros for vitulos, 
so here and all through this book he employs taurus for bos 
OYJuvencus. The ancients never ploughed with bulls. — sulco, 
by the furrow, not in the furrow. — splendescere. Old Cato in 
his address to his son (ap. Servium) said, Vir bonus est, mi 
Jili, colendi peritus, cujus ferramenta splendent, i. e. who keeps 
the plough constantly going. — 47. seges, corn-field. Ec. ix.48. 
— avari, i. e. avidi (Cf. Proem, to Aen. v. 3), eager, desirous. 
The poet of course could only have meant it in a good sense. 
— bis quae solem, etc., i. e. ' which has been fallowed.' The 
poet, from his ignorance of practical agriculture, seems to 
have expressed himself somewhat ambiguously here; for Pliny 
(xviii. 49), referring to this place, says, Quarto seri sulco (i. e. 
aratione) Virgilius existimatur voluisse. The usual course of 



book i. 41-52. 147 

fallowing among the ancients, as with ourselves, was to plough 
the ground deep in the spring, give it a cross ploughing in the 
summer, and a third ploughing in the autumn, with which 
they sometimes sowed it, or like us gave it an additional seecl- 
ploughing. The crop of wheat, which is the grain sown on 
fallows, had therefore to pay the expenses of two years ; and 
consequently the land might he said to feel two summers and 
two winters, and this was probably all that the poet meant. 
We however learn from Mr. Simond (Travels in Italy and 
Sicily, p. 476), that at the present clay in some places (he is 
speaking of Sciacca on the south coast of Sicily) a much 
longer time elapses between the crops. " When the land," 
says he, " is manured, which is rarely the case, it yields corn 
every year, otherwise once in three years : thus, first year 
corn (fromento) ; second year fallow, and the weeds mowed 
for hay ; third, ploughing several times, and sowing for the 
fourth year." He adds (which illustrates v. 73 seq.), " some 
farmers alternate with beans." It is, we think, a just remark 
of Wagner, that vv. 47-49 are among those which the poet 
inserted in his poem after it was finished, for they are quite 
parenthetic. — Illiiis, sc. segetis. — ruperunt horrea, burst the 
granaries. The perfect tense is used, like the Greek aorist, 
to express the frequency of an action. This is correct and 
philosophic ; for when a thing has happened once or more 
times, it may reasonably be inferred that it will happen again. 
50-56. Ac prius, etc. This follows the subject of v. 46. 
The common reading is at, but this was evidently an emenda- 
tion of those who did not perceive the close connexion with 
that verse. ' Before,' says he, 'we commence tilling land 
with which we have not been previously acquainted, we should 
learn its nature.' — -ferro scindimus, we plough. — aequor. This 
word, which is chiefly and perhaps was originally used of the 
sea, is also employed to express plains. Aegyptii et Babylonii 
in camporum patentium aequoribus habitantes, Cic. Div. i. 42. 
It is here vised for campus or ager. — ventos et caeli, etc., the 
prevailing winds and the climate or nature of the air, whether 
dry or moist, etc. — 52. ac patrios, etc., and the original (inhe- 
rited as it were) nature of the soil, and mode of cultivating it. 

h2 



148 GEORGICS. 

There is a hysteron-proteron in cultus and habitus, occasioned 
no doubt by the strain of the metre. Wagner says that pa- 
trios properly belongs to locorum. — Et quid, etc. Having 
ascertained all these points, the next is to see what plants are 
best suited to the soil. Some soils, for example, are adapted 
to corn, others to vines ; some to trees and natural grass grow- 
ing among them : see v. 15. — 53. recuset. The poet animates 
everything, even the land — veniunt, i. e. proveniunL—Arborei 
fetus., the growth of trees. Fetus is used of anything, animal 
or vegetable, that grows. — injussa, i. e. sponte. — virescunt. This 
verb is governed of both fetus and gramma. Wagner and 
Forbiger put a semicolon after alibi; incorrectly, we think. 

56-63. Nonne vides. He adopted this expression, which 
makes the verse more animated, from Lucretius, who fre- 
quently uses it, as ii. 196, 207. — Tmolos, a mountain of Lydia, 
at the foot of which the city of Sardis lay. Virgil is the 
earliest extant writer who says that it produced saffron, and 
he may have confounded it with Mount Corycus in Cilicia, 
which was famous for that plant ; for, as we have before ob- 
served, we must not look for great geographical accuracy in 
the ancient poets. As to the testimony of Columella (iii. 8), 
Solinus (53), and Martianus Capella (6), it is not of so much 
weight, as they probably only followed Virgil. — croceos odores, 
i. q. crocam odorum. — India mittit ebur, India exports, sends 
us ivory. This country has been always remarkable for its 
elephants. — molles Sabaei. The Sabaeans were a people of 
Arabia Felix, whence the fragrant gum named thus or fran- 
kincense came; the Sheba of Scripture. They are called 
molles, soft or effeminate, for the Greeks and Romans con- 
sidered all the Orientals to be so, ascribing this effect to the 
extreme heat of the climate. — sua, which is peculiar to them, 
only is produced in their country. — Chalybes, a people to the 
north of Armenia on the coast of the Euxine. Their country 
was famed for its iron-mines. It was probably from their 
name that the Greeks formed their yaXv^i, steel, though it 
may have been the reverse. — nudi, because the men employed 
in forges and iron-works throw off" their upper garments, 
which is all that is meant by nudus : see v. 299 ; Aen. viii. 425. 



book i. 53-66. 149 

— Pontus, the country on the south coast of the Euxine. — 
virosa castorea, the strong-smelling castoreum. This is a fluid 
secreted by a gland near the testicles of the castor (raorwp) 
or beaver: see Plin. viii. 30, 47 ; xxxii. 3, 13. The Pontic 
was considered the best, the Spanish of an inferior quality : 
Strabo iii. p. 163. It is remarkable that in the time of Virgil 
the beaver was an inhabitant of Spain and Asia Minor ; in 
the middle ages it Avas still in Germany (Dante, Inf. C. xvii. 
v. 22), while at the present day it is not to be met with in 
Europe. — Eliadum, etc. Epirus sends the mares that win the 
plates at the Olympic games. Epirus, as abounding in fine 
pastures, was celebrated for its breed of horses. Hence the 
Greeks called evnrwos, einrwXos. Mares, it is well-known, 
are fleeter than horses, though they have not the same strength. 
— Palma, the palm-branch the token of victory, thence the 
victory itself, and finally, as here, the victor : tertia palma 
Diores, Aen. v. 339. The construction in the text is a cu- 
rious hypallage; the natural one would be, Epiros equas, 
palmas Eliadum, sc. certaminum. See Excursus V. — 60. Con- 
tinuo, directly, immediately from. It is to be taken with tem- 
pore in the next line. — 7ias leges, etc. Aeternas is to be under- 
stood with leges, and liaec with foedera. See on Ec. iii. 33. 
8 These laws and conditions,' sc. that each country should have 
its peculiar products, — quo tempore, etc. The well-known 
legend of the restoration of the human race by Deucalion and 
Pyrrha flinging stones behind their backs : see Ov. Met. i. 253 • 
Mythology, p. 298 — durum genus. Cf. Lucr. v. 923. 

63-70. Ergo age, etc. He returns from the preceding di- 
gression, and resumes the subject of ploughing from v. 46. 
A strong soil, he says, should get a deep ploughing with 
stout oxen early in the year, and be left exposed to the hot 
suns of summer, that it might be dried and pulverised. — glebas 
jacentes, the sods that were turned up (not turned over) and lay 
exposed. — 66. Pulverulenta aestas, the dusty summer, i. e. the 
summer that pulverises. — coquat. The verb coquo is to cook, 
to dress, to make or prepare with fire. It is used of meat, of 
bread, of bricks or lime. To bake seems to express it best in 
this place, for bread is baked by the action of the fire expel- 



150 GEORGICS. 

ling the moisture from it, as that of the sun does from the 
land, which however it does not harden. — maturis solibus, with 
mature, ripe suns, that have attained their full strength, i. e. 
those of midsummer. — 67. At si, etc., ' but if the land is not 
of this strong loamy description, you should not till it in this 
manner : in that case you should only give it a light plough- 
ing just in the beginning of September/ — -fecunda, i. q. pin- 
giris, v. 64. — sub ipsum Arcturum. This star, the brightest in 
the sign of Bootes or Arctophylax, rises, according to Colu- 
mella (xi. 2), on the nones (5th) of September. — teuui sus- 
pendere sulco, to raise it with a light furrow, i. e. to give it a 
shallow ploughing; the ploughman, as it were, instead of 
pressing down his plough (v. 45), keeping it up, suspending 
it. Lucretius (iii. 197) uses suspensa in the sense of light. — 
Illic, etc. The former mode is in order that the weeds may 
be destroyed ; the latter, lest all the moisture should be drawn 
out of the ground. — herbae, grass, weeds, anything else beside 
the corn. Cf. ii. 251. — arenam, i.e. terrain, solum: see on 
v. 105. 

71-83. Having described the novalis, or fallow system of 
culture, he now passes to the restibilis or rotation system, with 
dunging and top-dressing. — 71. Alternis, sc. vicibus or annis, 
— idem, you, the same farmer, will practise the two modes of 
culture, cultivating some of your land on the one, some on the 
other system. — tonsas novales, the reaped fields. Reaping is 
called shearing in Scotland and the north of England. — ces- 
sare, etc. It can hardly be meant that the land was to be let lie 
idle an entire year, for in that case there would only be one 
crop in three years. What he means is that, after the corn 
had been cut in the summer, the land was to be let to lie and 
get a scurf of weeds on it till the following spring, when they 
were to be ploughed in. This is expressed by segnem situ 
durescere campum ; the segnem denoting the rest, the situ the 
scurf, and the durescere the hardening, the forming of an in- 
cipient sward. This plain meaning of duresco is, we think, 
more in accordance with nature than that of acquiring vigour 
by rest. — Aut, etc. Or else on the rotation system, of which 
the following is an example. On the land where you have 



book i. 67-79. 151 

sowed a crop of leguminous plants in the spring, you may sow 
a crop of corn in the following autumn. — mutato sidere, i. e. 
in another part of the year ; as Voss rightly understood it, not 
of the next year, like Jahn and Forbiger. Heyne, by sidus, 
understood the sun, but it seems more simple to take it as a 
sign or constellation which is said to be changed when one 
comes in place of another ; Arcturus, for example, in that of 
the Pleiades. — farra. We may take this, with Servius and 
Forbiger, for bread-corn in general. — legumen. Pliny (xvii. 9 ; 
xviii. 21) understands by this the bean (faba), but it probably 
includes the pea. He terms it laetum, luxuriant, abundant, as 
is indicated by the quantity of its pods (siliquae), which when 
ripe shake and rattle with every passing breeze. — quassante. 
This exactly answers to our shaking. — tenuis viciae. The tare 
or vetch is called slight because its halm is so slender and its 
seed so small, compared with those of the bean or pea. — tristis- 
que lupini, the bitter lupine. For this sense of tristis, see ii. 
126. Ennius has triste sinapi ; Ovid (Ex P. iii. 1, 23) tristia 
absinthia. The que here is equivalent to ve : see Excursus V. 
—fragiles calamos, etc. The halm of leguminous plants, as 
every one knows, is very brittle as compared with straw, and 
their seeds rattle in the pods. — silvam. He uses this term, 
with a poet's licence, to denote the density and vigour of the 
crop. — Urit enim, etc. Those are the crops I would recom- 
mend you to sow previous to bread-corn, and not, as some do, 
flax, oats, or poppies, for these exhaust the land too much. 
The primary sense of uro is to burn, but it is used to express 
any effect analogous to burning ; thus f Vigor urit, calceus urit, 
because they produce a sore similar to a burn. It is employed 
here because these plants take the substance out of the land, 
as fire does out of what it lays hold of. — avenae, sc. seges. — 
Lethaeo, etc. Poppies, from their narcotic quality, are poeti- 
cally said to be sprinkled with sleep, which is further called 
Lethaean, from Lethe (AijOri), the River of Oblivion. In the 
use of the term perfusa there may be an allusion to the Roman 
custom of eating poppy-seeds sprinkled on cakes. — 79. Sed 
tamen, etc., ' but still you may sow these injurious crops alter- 
nately with your corn-crops, provided you use manure.' — 



152 GEORGICS. 

alternis, sc. victims*— -facilis labor, sc. campi, from v. 77, the 
land will easily bear it. " Labor tribuitur agro, quemadmo- 
dum defatigari, refoveri, recreari, ilia dicitur." Heyne. Cf. 
v. 150. — arida, as being exhausted by the flax, etc. — Effetos, 
effete, exhausted. — cinerem. The cineres of ancient as of mo- 
dern Italy, we must recollect were wood-ashes. They were 
usually sprinkled, as a top-dressing, on the growing corn. — 
Sic quoque, etc. Thus the land may be said to rest in this 
way also ; under a rotation of crops as well as by fallowing, 
the manure supplying the place of the latter — Nee nulla, etc. 
This is an extremely perplexing verse. The only sense in 
which the verb inaro is used by Cato, Varro, Columella and 
Pliny, is that of ploughing in ; for we may observe that these 
writers never employ the verbs compounded with in, as inocco, 
infodio, insero, etc. in a negative sense ; in or on is always a 
part of their signification. On the other hand, Horace (Epod. 
16, 43) has tellus inarata, uncultivated land, and Ovid (Met. 
i. 109) uses the same phrase in the same sense. Statius also, 
a great imitator of our poet, has (Th. x. 512) inarata diu 
Pangaea. We are further to observe, that it is not the land 
itself that is ploughed in, but the dung or whatever else is on 
it. In one place in Pliny (xviii. 14) inaro seems to be i. q. 
aro ; but though he says solum inarari, he means the remain- 
ing halms and roots of the lupines which had been fed off. 
We therefore think that Virgil uses inaro in the name sense as 
Horace and Ovid. The verse is to be taken in connexion 
with the preceding one as a further proof of the advantage of 
manuring, and means, ' nor will there be the disadvantage of 
letting the land lie idle in fallow.' 

84-93. Another mode of manuring land was to set fire to 
the long stubble that had been left on it when the corn was 
cut. — steriles agros, the lands from which the corn had been 
carried, and Avhich therefore have nothing but the stubble on 
them. — Atque, etc. The critics observe that this line is com- 
posed of dactyls, to express the rapidity of the flames, as v. 65 
is of spondees for an opposite reason — Sive, etc. The various 
ways in which this process was supposed to act on the soil : 
it either gave it a new vigour, and supplied it with manure 



book i. 79-97. 153 

(the true one), or it took away its ill qualities, and drove off 
the superabundant moisture ; or it loosened it ; or it hardened 
it. — inutilis humor, the pernicious moisture ; as usual by the 
figure litotes. — caeca spiramenta, the secret pores. Caecus is 
frequently used for occultus: see Aen. ii. 453 ; Lucr. iii. 317 ; 
Hor. C. ii. 13, 16. — venas, i. q. vias and spiramenta in the 
preceding lines. — Ne tenues, etc. When the soil is thus some- 
what condensed by the action of the fire, it suffers less from 
the effects of heavy rains, of hot suns, or of frost. Tenues, 
thin, is an epithet taken from the nature of rain. It may seem 
not suitable in this place, but the poets vised their epithets 
without any very anxious discrimination. — rapidi solis. See on 
Ec. ii. 10. — adurat. See on v. 77. 

94-99. Being about to quit the subject of ploughing, he 
adds a few words respecting the pulverising of the land under 
the fallowing system. — rastris, etc. Our way, after breaking 
a field, is to give it a good tearing up with a heavy harrow 
with iron teeth, drawn by two or more horses. The ancients, 
who were unacquainted with the harrow, and who did not 
employ horses in their agriculture, used to break the clods by 
manual labour with an implement called a rastrum or a sarcic- 
lum (see Terms of Husbandry, s. v.) ; and then, to pulverise 
it, the men drew over it bush-harrows, nearly the same as 
we use, though of course lighter, as ours are drawn by horses. 
According to Holdsworth, this mode of tillage prevailed in 
Italy in the last century, and in some places it does so still. — 
glebas inertes, the inactive clods, namely those which had been 
turned up in the proscission, or breaking, and which of course 
were now lying unproductive. — vimineas crates, bush-harrows, 
as being made of bushes twisted together. See Terms of Hus- 
bandry. — Flava Ceres. The Savd-q Arjfj.r]Tr]p of Homer. — ne- 
quicquam spectat. A litotes as usual, meaning that she regards 
him with great favour, and gives him an abundant crop. — 97. 
Et qui. The qui here (it may not be needless to observe) is not 
different from the qui of v. 94, for it must be the same farmer 
who breaks the land and who cross-ploughs it. The process 
of Avhich he now speaks is that of cross-ploughing, or cutting 
the land at right angles to the first ploughing. — proscisso 

H 5 



154 GEORGICS. 

aequore, in the broken field. The Romans used the verb 
proscindo, where we employ break. — quae suscitat (instead of 
susciiavit), which he has thrown up, sc. with the plough in the 
proscission. — terga. The tergum is the gleba, the sod which 
the plough raises in its progress : see Terms of Husbandry, 
v. aratio. — in obliquum, across, at right angles. — Exercet, tills 
by ploughing or otherwise. Cf. i. 220; Aen. vii. 798; x. 142. 
Paterna rura bubus exercet suis, Hor. Epod. 2, 3. — imperat, 
acts like a master, makes his land obey him. 

100-117. Having completed his precepts respecting the 
previous tillage of the land, and supposing the corn to be 
sown, he goes on to tell what is further to be done, and be- 
gins with the kind of weather that the husbandman should 
pray for. This, he says, should be moderate rains in summer 
and a winter dry on the whole. He here gives the substance 
of an old agricultural verse, said by Macrobius (v. 20) to be 
contained in a book of old poems far more ancient than any of 
the works of the Latin poets; it runs thus: Hiberno pulvere, 
verno luto, grandia farra, Camille, metes. — Humida solstitla, a 
dripping summer: plur. for sing. When solstitium is used 
alone, it always denotes the summer-solstice ; that of winter is 
called bruma. Solstitium is used for aestas, like carina for 
navis, etc. : see on Ec. vii. 47. Even in these northern regions 
the farmer wishes for a " dripping May ;" and, what corre- 
sponds to the other part of the precept, we have a proverb, 
" A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom." — ?iullo, 
etc., there is no kind of culture under which the rich corn- 
countries will yield such crops as under this genial influence 
of the skies. — sejactat, evyeTai — Mysia, a most fertile region 
of Asia Minor on the Hellespont, at the foot of the range of 
•which Mount Gargarus was the most conspicuous point. — 
104. Quiddicem, sc.de re, meaning 'I commend'. — jacto qui, 
etc., who, as soon as he has sown his seed, goes over his field 
and breaks all the remaining clods. — cominus, immediately, 
without any delay. — Insequitur, pursues, follows. The image 
which seems to have been in the poet's mind was that of the 
Honian soldier throwing his pilum, and then pursuing and 
cutting down the flying foes. — ruit, throws down, levels. The 



book i. 97-111. 155 

verb is here transitive. Cf. Aen. i. 35 ; xi. 211. — male pinguis 
arenae, of the too abundant clay. Male, when joined with an 
adjective, often denotes excess, with injury arising from it. 
Thus, Hor. C. i. 7, 25, male dispar ; S. i. 3, 31, male laxus; 
S. i. 4, 66, male raucus. Arena is used for any kind of earthy 
matter : cf. iv. 291. Some interpret male pinguis, non pinguis, 
sterilis ; for male expresses deficiency as well as excess, as in 
male sanus and male parvus, Hor. S. i. 3, 46. — Deinde, etc. 
Next(that is, if there should come no rain,) he irrigates his corn- 
fields artificially. — satis inducit, etc., leads the stream (whose 
waters follow as he opens the trench) on his fields. We cannot 
conceive what induced Forbiger to take satis as an adverb. — 
Et cum, etc. It would seem that he wished to indicate two 
modes of irrigating ; the one, for fields in the level country, 
where, by means of a dam, the water of a stream is brought 
in over them ; the other, for fields on a declivity, where the 
water is brought down on them from the springs near the 
summit. It may be, that his imitation of Homer caused him 
to make some confusion. — aestuat, 'is quite in a heat', as if it 
were an animated being. — supercilio, etc., from the brow of 
the hilly path (sc. of the water), i. e. from the brow of the hill 
whence the water runs. " Tramites sunt convalles, quae de 
lateribus utrinque perviae limitant montes, quae solent etiam 
saltus nuncupari." Servius. We have never met frames in 
this sense. — Elicit, entices. " In aliquibus provinciis Elices 
appellantur sulci ampliores ad siccandos agros ducti." Ser- 
vius. — scatebris, with water. Scatebra is properly the gush- 
ing or bubbling of water : it is therefore a very appropriate 
term in this place. — 11 1 . Quid, sc. dicam de eo. Another prac- 
tice, to let the cattle in to eat down the corn which is growing 



V. 108. 'Qs S' ot dvqp oxerrjybs ano Kprjvrjs peXavvSpov 
"Ajj, tpVTct Kai ktjttovs vcaros poov r)yef,iovevei 
Xepvi paiceWav ex^v, dfxdprjs 8' eS, e^juara (3d\\u)V 
Tov [iev re irpopeovro9, vtto iprifoces Ixizanai 
'OxXevprai' ro Se r Siiza Karei(56fievov Kekapv'Cei 
X<bp(j) evi irpoaXel, dQdvei de re icai rov dyovra. 

Horn. Il.xxi.25f. 



156 GEORGICS. 

too fast ; not too thick, for the effect of depasturing is to make 
it grow more densely. — ne gravidis procumbat, etc. The rea- 
son here assigned seems to be, lest it should come too early 
into ear, " lest the stalk should be bent too soon {procumbat) 
by the heavy ear." — Cum primum, etc., as soon as the corn 
is sufficiently grown to make the surface of the ridges even. 
This seems to be the sense in which sidcus is here employed. 
— quique, sc. quid dicam de eo. Another process, that of 
draining the stagnant water off the corn-fields, by clearing out 
the furrows and opening drains. — paludis, of the pool, sing, 
for plur., the water lying in the furrows. — bibida arena, from 
the absorbing clay, sc. of the corn-fields : see on v. 105. — 
incertis mensibus, the spring months, when the weather is most 
uncertain. — Exit, overflows, goes out of its bed. — Unde, etc., 
whence, if the water is not drawn off before the sun begins to 
act on it, it might rot the plants. — sudant, as the water would 
be drawn up by the heat of the sun. — lacunae : these were 
what we call the furrows, i. e. the spaces between the ridges. 

118-124. But those operations will not suffice to procure 
an abundant crop : the fields must be kept free from birds 
and other mischievous things. From the consideration of the 
constant care and toil to which the husbandman is thus con- 
demned, the poet is naturally led to speak of the Golden Age, 
when such toil was not. — hominumque boumque labores, i. q. 
homines bovesque laborantes. — nihil. This is to be taken with 
nee of the preceding verse. Nee nihil, very much, greatly. — 
improbus. This word is probably a translation by the poets of 
the Greek o^att?)s, which in Homer has a similar sense. Pro- 
bus (probably, i. q. probatus) is what is approved, the ground 
of approbation being moderation, modesty, justice; improbus 
is its contrary, and is therefore immoderate, unjust, destruc- 
tive, and what is not approved. Cf. iii. 430 ; Aen. ii. 356 ; ix. 
62 ; x. 727. Hence, in this place, improbus anser is the mis- 
chievous, destructive goose. — anser. We see no reason to sup- 
pose, with Voss and Forbiger, that it is the wild goose of 
which he is speaking. Surely no one ever saw wild-geese in a 
corn-field. The domestic goose, on the other hand, is really 
very injurious, and for exactly the reasons given by Palladius 



book i. 111-125. 157 

in the passage (i. 30), which Voss quotes from him, and in 
which the critic might have seen that he was speaking of the 
tame goose. Anser locis consitis inimicus est, quia sata et morsu 
laedit et stercore. This notion of their dung being injurious 
is, as Marty n justly observes, a vulgar error. — Strymoniae 
grues. Cranes also injure the growing corn ; though such is 
not, we believe, the case in this country. Strymoniae is an 
epithet, ornans, as they abounded about the river Strymon in 
Thrace. — intuba. The intubum is what we call chicory, or 
succory : see the Flora : its roots (Jibrae) are very bitter. It 
is a favourite food of geese (Colum. viii. 14), and hence per- 
haps it is that the poet calls it injurious, as the geese in search- 
ing for it pull up the corn. But probably he gives it merely 
as an example, to show the necessity of weeding, of which he 
had not yet spoken. — umbra, sc. arborum. Cf. Ec. x. 76. — 
Pater ipse. Pater mr et,o-^))v is Jupiter. See below, vv. 283, 
328, 353. For ipse, see on Ec. viii. 96. The Silver Age, in 
which toil began, was under Jupiter. For the Ages of the 
World, see Hesiod, Works, 109, seq. ; Ovid, Met. i. 89, seq.; 
Mythology, p. 282. — Movit, moved, i. e. caused to be moved, 
as in all languages a person is said to do the thing that he 
causes to be done ; as a farmer (to take an example from the 
matter in hand) will say, ' I will plough up, or I have ploughed 
up, such or such a field,' though he had only directed it to be 
done. Nay we have heard a man say he had eaten so many 
quarters of oats, meaning that he had given them to his horses 
to eat. — curis, with or by care, with anxiety. The anxiety of 
a farmer is well known. — acuens, etc., the same metaphor as 
we use when we speak of sharpening the intellect. Lucretius, 
whom Virgil so constantly follows, frequently speaks of the 
heart as the seat of thought, ex. gr. iv. 51 ; v. 1105. — torpere 
veterno, to grow torpid with sloth. Veternus (from vetu$) de- 
notes the inactivity and neglect, and hence the filth, often 
produced by old-age. — sua regna, mankind, over whom he 
ruled. It may perhaps mean the earth, which, if not tilled, 
would be covered with weeds and filth. 

125-146. Ante Jovem, sc. in the time of Saturn, the Golden 
Age. — signare, to mark out the fields by boundary-stones, 



158 GEORGICS. 

trees, etc. — limite, by a boundary-line or fence. — Fas erat, 
was it the practice, custom. — in medium quaercbant, they 
brought everything into the common stock, there was no 
private property. Cf. iv. 157; Aen. xi. 335. — liberius, more 
liberally, or more freely, sc. than now. — nullo poscente, i. e. 
cogente. The lands without culture produced more then, than 
with it now. — 129. Hie, etc., he gave, i. e. caused to have. 
Addo is simply to give to. — atris. Some kinds of serpents, 
such as the viper, are dark-coloured ; but it is better to un- 
derstand it, with Jacobs, diris, like atra tigris, iv. 407. The 
poet intimates, that in the Golden Age all beasts of prey and 
venomous reptiles had been innocuous. Milton thus repre- 
sents them in Paradise. — pontum moveri, sc. a ventis, not by 
oars, etc., as the commencement of navigation is noticed be- 
low, v. 136. — Jlellaque, etc. It was the opinion of the ancients 
that honey was a kind of dew (see on iv. 1), and that the bees 
gathered it off the leaves on which it lay. It was supposed to 
be so abundant in the golden time, that men gathered it as it 
dropped from the leaves ; hence Jupiter is said to shake it 
down, so that they could get it no more in this manner. — ignem 
removit, alluding to the story of Prometheus. — Et passim, etc. 
In the Golden Age, it was believed, wine, milk, and oil ran in 
streams like water. Wine is mentioned here as an instance. — 
repressit, stopped, sc. in their founts ; did not let them run 
any longer. — Ut varias, etc. The reason assigned, which is a 
benevolent one, is that the human mind, by being thrown on 
its own resources, might develope its powers. — usus, practice. 
— meditando, by meditating, planning ; or by exercising itself. 
See on Ec. i. 2. — extunderet, might hammer out, as we say. — 
et sulcis, etc., and by (not in) furrows (i. e. by ploughing) 
might seek to have corn. One might have expected ut, but 
all the MSS. read et, which may here mean for example. — 
frumenti herbam, i. q. frumentariam herbam : see on Ec. v. 26. 
— Ut silicis, etc., 'might strike out of stones the fire that lay 
concealed in them,' was as it were thrust out of the way into 
them. We do not think, with the critics, that there is any re- 
ference here to v. 131. — Tunc alnos, etc., navigation then, 
commenced in the formation of canoes for crossing rivers, 



book i. 126-142. 159 

made out of the alders that grew on their banks. — Navita, etc. 
The further progress of navigation, when men ventured on 
the open sea and guided their course by the stars, to which 
they were necessarily led to give more attention. They there- 
fore counted them, divided them into constellations, and gave 
them names, such as the following. — Pleiadas, etc, In imita- 
tion of Hesiod, he makes this word of four syllables ; the last 
is long by arsis. The Pleiades are in the neck of Taurus, the 
Hyades in his hinder part : see Mythology, p. 464. Arctos 
is the Bear, into which Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was 
changed. lb. p. 425. — Turn lagueis, etc., hunting and fowl- 
ing were then invented : laqaeis, in nets.— -fallere, sc. aves. 
— visco, with bird-lime, which was made from the juice of the 
viscus, or mistletoe. — et magyios, etc. : see on Ec. x. 51. — At- 
que alius, etc., fishing was also invented, and was practised 
first in the rivers, and then in the sea.-- funda. This was 
probably the net which may be seen still employed in the 
rivers and harbours of France and Italy : it is in form like 
a large landing-net, and has lead at the bottom to sink it ; it 
is suspended from a pole, which is set at an angle of 45 de- 
grees or less, in the stern of a boat, which is moored in one of 
the deepest parts of the river. The net is provided with bait, 
lowered into the water by means of a pulley-wheel at the end 
of the pole and let sink to the bottom ; and after remaining 
there for some time (a quarter of an hour perhaps), it is slowly 
drawn up by pulling the cord that goes over the pulley. — 
verberat. This expresses the plash which the net makes when 
let fall on the water. — 142. Alfa petens, seeking the depths; 
because, as we have just observed, the net was used in the 
middle of the stream. In joining alta petens with the pre- 
ceding verse, we have, with Voss, Wunderlich and Jahn, fol- 
lowed the punctuation of the Medicean MS. and the natural 
order of the words. There is however another interpretation, 
mentioned by Servius, and adopted by Heyne and Forbiger, 
which puts a stop after amnem, and joins alia petens withpe- 
lagoque, etc. Wagner, who in his text had given the former, 
in the Quaest. Virg. xxxiv. 2. adopts the latter, giving a num- 
ber of instances of what he considers a similar construction, 



160 GEORGICS. 

such as Aen. v. 442 ; xii. 508. : he therefore regards pelago 
as being added by way of epexegesis. But Jahn observes, 
that in that case it should be pelagus. For the employment of 
alius in the sense of profundus, applied to a river, see iv. 333 ; 
Ov. Met. v. 385 ; Tr. i. 8, 1 ; and in prose Caesar says (Bell. 
Civ. iii. 77) altissimis fluminibus. — 142. Una, the drag-net, 
which is very long; or simply the fishing-lines. — 143. Turn, 
sc. venit in tisum, v. 145. — ferri rigor, i. q. rigidum ferrum ; 
Lucretius has (i. 493) auri rigor em. — atque, and particularly. 
He gives a single instance of the implements that were then 
invented. This, as we shall see, is a frequent practice with 
our poet. — argutae, etc., the blade of the shrill saw. — primi, 
sc. homines, the men of the Golden Age ; or rather, before that 
time : see on Ec. i. 46. — Improbus, persevering : see on v. 119. 
— egestas, want, especially of food. This leads the poet back 
to his subject. 

147-159. Prima Ceres. The invention of agriculture was 
universally ascribed to this goddess. — ferro, i. e. vomere, rastro, 
ligone. etc. — instituit, taught. — cum jam glandes, etc. When 
the mast and arbutus-berries of the sacred wood (i. e. woods) 
began to fail. Heyne makes silvae the nom., and glandes and 
arbuta the accus., with quoad understood. The other inter- 
pretation seems far preferable. Woods were called sacred, as 
being dedicated to gods. — Dodona, i. e. the oaks of Dodona. 
— labor, annoyance, injury. Cf. v. 79, and ii. 343, 372. — 151. 
Esset, the imperf. subj. of edo. — robigo, the blight or mildew. 
The Romans worshiped a deity named Robigus or Robigo, in 
order to avert it: see Ovid, Fast. iv. 905, seq. with our notes. 
— segnis carduus, the worthless, unproductive (sc. of food) 
thistle. — horreret, ' would bristle up', very descriptive of the 
thistle. The original meaning of horreo seems to have been 
to bristle, to stand on end; and, as the hair rises in terror, it 
came to signify to fear. Virgil often employs it in its original 
sense : see ii. 69, 142 ; Aen. xi. 602. — segetes, the corn. — subit, 
comes up in its stead. — silva. See on v. 76. — nitentia culia, 
answering to the nitidae fruges of Lucretius, i. 253. — Infelix, 
etc.: see on Ec. v. 37. — 155. Quod. Heyne and Voss say this 
is propter quod, referring to ii. 425, where hoc is thus used ; 



book i. 142-164. 161 

but see on Ec. ix. 14. — herbam, the weeds : see v. 69. This is 
the reading of all the best MSS. ; Heyne and Voss prefer the 
common one of terram, but Heyne manifestly misunderstood 
the poet in this place. — insectabere, as if they were noxious 
reptiles. — mris opaci, of the shady trees. — Falce premes, cut 
away with the pruning-hook. Premant Catena falce vitem, 
Hor. C. i. 31, 9. — umbram, i.e. the branches that make the 
shade. Umbram is the reading of the Medicean and some of 
the best MSS., and of some of those of Servius. Heyne and 
Voss, to avoid the rime with imbrem, prefer the reading of 
umbras. We may however observe, that the arsis falls on the 
last syllable of umbram and the first of imbrem, so that there 
is no jingle: an attention to this circumstance will remove 
nearly all the supposed jingles from the Latin poets.— -frustra, 
to no purpose, as you will have no corn of your own. — Con- 
cassaque, etc. ' you will be obliged to live on the acorns which 
you will shake from the trees in the woods.' 

160-175. Having brought the culture of corn thus far, he 
now stops to notice the principal implements with which the 
husbandman should provide himself. — arma, implements : see 
Aen. i. 1 77 ; v. 15 ; vi. 355. — ■ Quis sine, i. q. sine quibus. Quis 
or queis is an old form of the dat. and abl. : see Ec. i. 73 ; Aen. i. 
95; v. 511; vii. 570, and elsewhere. The preposition is fre- 
quently placed after the relative pronoun.— potuere, i.e.pos- 
sunt : see on v. 49. — Vomis, etc., first of all the plough, wag- 
gons, etc. — robur aratri, i. e. robustum aratrum, like rigor ferri, 
v. 143. Here also he follows Lucretius, who has robore saxi 
(i. 881), and robora ferri (ii. 449). — Tarda, i. q. tarde, the adj. 
for the adv. in the usual manner. — Eleusinae matris, i. e. of 
Demeter or Ceres, who was chiefly worshiped at Eleusis in 
Attica. She is called Mater, either in allusion to her name 
Demeter, i. e. Mother Earth, or because Mater in the Roman 
religion was equivalent to goddess : see Mythology, p. 507. — 
164. Tributaque traheaeque, implements for threshing out the 
corn. — iniqno, i. e. non aequo, not moderate, i. e. very heavy. 
The Romans used aequus and Justus in the sense of moderation, 
as applied to material things ; for what is moderate is just. For 
the description of all these implements and of the plough, which 



162 GEORGICS. 

we meet in v. 171, seq., see Terms of Husbandry, s.v. — 165. 
Virgea, etc. The baskets, etc. made of osier and other plants, 
which were of little cost or value as compared with the prece- 
ding implements. He calls them supellex, because they were kept 
in the farmhouse. — Celei, of Celeus, who entertained Ceres at 
Eleusis, and whom she taught agriculture. — crates, the bush- 
harrows : see v. 95. It appears from this that they were usu- 
ally made of arbutus-boughs. — mystica vannus lacchi, the fan 
used in the winnowing of corn. He calls it mystic because it 
was carried in the procession of the Eleusiuian mysteries, in 
which Iacchus was the vrapedpos of the goddess. He is not to 
be confounded with Bacchus, though Virgil seems to do it 
(Ec. vi. 15; vii. 51), for he was the son of Ceres; whence 
Lucretius says (iv. 1162), At gemina et mammosa Ceres est 
ipsa ah Iaccho, i. e. after having given birth to Iacchus — 

digna, deserved, merited. Cf. Ec. v. 44; x. 10 divini. The 

Greek clos, the old Latin dins, in the sense of noble, excellent. 
Some say divine, as being the abode of the rural gods. 

169. Continuo, first of all : see on v. 60. The first thing to 
be done in making a plough is to select a proper piece of elm 
for forming the curved part of it, named the buris. The poet 
would seem to say, that the elm as it grew was to be bent by 
main force into the requisite form, and possibly, ignorant as he 
practically was of agriculture, such may have been his mean- 
ing. But the thing is physically impossible ; the utmost the 
ancient carpenter could have done was, as shipwrights do 
with regard to the timbers, as they are called, in a ship, to look 
out for a piece of wood which nature had brought as nearly 
as possible to the required form. Flexa may then signify 
bent by nature, and magna vi merely denote the labour of the 
carpenter in sawing and turning it into shape. — curvi aratri, 
of the curved part of the plough, i. e. the buris. — Huic, sc. 
hurt. — a stirpe, from its upper end.— protentus, sc. est. This, 
we think, is simpler than, as is usually done, to supply aptatur ; 
for the temo is not fitted on like the aures and dentalia. — aures, 
sc. aptantur. — Caeditur, etc. Here we have another difficulty : 
he seems to speak of cutting a piece of lime-wood for the 
yoke, of beech for we know not what, and a plough-handle of 



book i. 165-178. 163 

we know not what wood. Martyn, who is followed by Voss, 
Manso, Wunderlich and Forbiger, would read stivae for stiva- 
que, supposing the handle to be of beech ; but this is contrary 
to all the MSS. Wagner, taking the meaning to be the same, 
regards fagus stivaque as a hendyadis ; Jahn, who asserts this 
to be almost a solecism, agrees with those who, like Ruaeus, 
think that the meaning is, that the yoke is to be either lime or 
beech, and the handle of some other wood. With these we 
agree, and think that the poet, who so frequently uses que in 
the sense of ve, may have done the same in this place, and 
hence all the difficulty. — currus imos, the bottom or under- 
paid of the plough. He terms the plough curious, because it 
runs (currit), for the same reason that a carriage was so called. 
Wagner, following two MSS., reads cursus, but nothing would 
be gained by the change. Servius says, " Currus dixit prop- 
ter morem provinciae suae in qua aratra habent rotas quibus 
juvantur." Pliny (xviii. 18) says that the Gauls (Galliae) had 
added two little wheels to the plough ; and it is the wheel- 
plough that is chiefly used in Lombardy at the present day. 
Still we think that the poet had only the ordinary plough in 
view. — a tergo, behind. — torqueat, may turn, i. e. incline to 
either side. — Et suspensa, etc. When the wood for making the 
plough had been cut, it was to be hung up in the farm- 
kitchen, where the smoke would have access to it, to season it 
before it was used. In this description of the plough, etc. Virgil 
evidently had Hesiod in view, whose plough we shall notice in 
the Terms of Husbandry. 

176, 177- 'I can give you (i. e. Maecenas, or rather farmer,) 
many precepts handed down from our forefathers, if you do 
not think them beneath your attention.' The following are 
examples. 

178-186. Area, the threshing-floor, which was a part of the 
field prepared for the purpose : see Varro, R. R. i. 51. — cum 
primis, sc. rebus, 'it is a matter of the greatest importance that,' 
etc. — ingenti, etc., is to be levelled with a heavy rolling-stone. 
— Et vertenda, etc., 'it is to be formed of tenacious clay, which 
must be well-kneaded in the hand.' This is a hysteron-prote- 
ron, as the floor must be made before it is rolled. — creta, chalk, 



164 GEORGICS. 

used for argilla or potter's clay, like arena, v. 105. — 180. Ne 
subeant, etc. The reason why it is to be made thus solid is, that 
grass may not grow in it, and that it may not crack. — pulvere 
victa, overcome by the dust, i. e. by the heat of summer that 
makes dust — Turn, i. e. et turn, and then (i. e. if the area 
cracks) mice and ether vermin will settle in the fissures. — 
illudant, may play in, i. e. destroy ; for what is sport to them 
is destructive to the farmei ; see ii. 375. — Sacpe exiguus mus, 
etc. ' Thus, for example, the little mouse (exiguus, epith. or- 
nans) often makes her nest and collects her stock of grain 
under the floor.' The perf. is used here as an aorist. — oculis 
capti, blind, litt. taken in the eyes, like menle captus. The 
eyes of the mole are very small (like pinholes), their only use 
being to warn him of his coming into the light. The ancients 
therefore, who were not the most accurate of observers, re- 
garded him as being totally blind. Talpa is here masc, like 
dama, iii. 539 ; Ec. viii. 28. — bufo, the toad : this word occurs 
nowhere else in the classics. — et quae plurima, old re noWd. 
— Curculio, the weevil. This larva is well-known to be very 
destructive to corn and flour, but only in the granary. Even 
with us corn is not left long enough on the barn-floor to be 
attacked by it.— populat, ravages, it is so destructive. — -f arris, 
of far, i. e. of grain in general. — inopi senectae, for its needy 
old-age. By the old-age of the ant he can only mean the 
winter. Cf. Aen. iv. 403 ; Hor. S. i. 1, 33 seq. Aelian (N. A. 
ii. 25) gives a minute description of the manner in which the 
ants plunder the corn from the area, and he adds that they 
bore through the grains that they may not germinate. It is 
however all an error; the ants are carnivorous rather than gra- 
nivorous : they have no store-houses, like bees ; their chief 
food is the honey-dew, i. e. the sweet substance secreted by 
the insects named aphides or blighters, which they draw from 
the bodies of the insects themselves, which are therefore called 
their cows : they also extract the fluids from dead insects, 
lizards, etc., and from ripe fruit : they are torpid during the 
greater part of the winter. 

187-192. The signs by which the goodness or badness of 
the future harvest may be prognosticated. — Contemplator item, 



book i. 180-193. 165 

Observe. A formula taken as usual from Lucretius, who has, 
cbntemplator enim cum solis lumina, etc., ii. 113, and contem- 
plator enim cum...nubila, etc., vi. 189.— nux, the almond, as 
Servius and the commentators in general understand it. This, 
as is well-known, is one of the earliest trees in flower, and it 
is entirely covered with blossoms. But nux alone always sig- 
nifies the walnut, and the leaves of that tree are fragrant ; we 
therefore think with Martyn that nux here also is the walnut. 
— plurima. This agrees with nux, and is not the plural of 
plurimum taken adverbially : see on Ec. vii. 60. — Induet in 
Jlorem, ' will be covered with blossom,' litt. will give itself into 
blossom. Induo is in-do. The prose-writers on agriculture 
say, perhaps less correctly, induere se Jlore ; for which form 
see iv. 142. — et ramos, etc., 'and will bend its fragrant boughs'; 
a poetic way of saying (as Wagner observes) 'its curved boughs 
will be fragrant.' A bough is never bent by the weight of its 
leaves or blossoms. — Si superant fetus, ' if it makes a great 
show of fruit,' i. e. if a great number of the blossoms set, as 
the gardeners term it. There is no comparison instituted, 
" nam proprie superant abundant est." Servius. — Magnaque, 
etc., ' there will be a very hot summer and a great threshing,' 
i. e. an abundant harvest. According to Hoblyn, they say in 
the west of England, " When the nut sets well the corn kerns 
(fills) well." In the north they say, " A haw year is a braw 
year," from the hawthorn. — At si luxuria, etc., but should the 
tree, instead of fruit, only show leaves, the harvest will be a bad 
one. — umbra, the shade of the tree, which is denser (exuberai) 
the more leaves there are on it. — Nequicquam, etc., ' you will 
thresh to little purpose the stalks, which have only chaff, not 
corn.' — pinguis palea, like ])inguia crura luto, Juv. iii. 247"; 
see also Hor. C. ii. 1, 29. — teret area culmos, i. q. culmi terentur 
in area. 

193-196. Directions for macerating or steeping the seeds 
of the leguminous plants before they are sown : see Varro i. 
57. — Semina, etc., 'I have seen many farmers pickle their 
seed.' — nitro, the virpov (from v'i^iS),nitrum, of the ancients, was 
not our nitre ; it was a mineral alkali, and was therefore used 
in washing. — amurca, a/jopyr] : see Terms of Husbandry, s.v. 
— 195. Grandior ut fetus, etc. The reasons why the seeds were 



166 GEOItGICS. 

pickled, namely that the produce might be greater, and that 
it might be more easily cooked. Grandis is perhaps to be 
taken here in the sense of abundant, as Columella seems to 
have understood it; for when quoting this passage (ii. 10) he 
substitutes laetior for grandior. — siliquisfallacibus, in the de- 
ceptive pods ; for the pod is of the same size, whether the fruit 
be large or small. — 196. proper ata, sc. semina. Instead of the 
adverb properato, propere, he uses the participle : but perhaps 
propero is to be taken in the sense of preparing, getting ready, 
with the idea of speed included: see on iv. 171.— maderent, 
with nt understood from v. 195, ' they might be cooked.' Thus 
Plautus (Men. ii. 2, 51), Jam ergo haec madebunt faxo, 
and (lb. i. 3, 29) madida, i. q. coda. Two writers in the 
Geoponics, Didymus (ii. 35) and Democritus (ii.41), expressly 
direct that beans, etc. should be steeped for a day before they 
were sown in a solution of nitron in water, in order that they 
might be cooked more easily (tVa koKol npos rqv e^rjaiv won) : 
see also Theophrast. Hist. PI. ii. 5. and Palladius, xii. 1. 

197-203. But pickling the seed and selecting it one time 
will not suffice : the farmer must select his seed every year. — 
spectata, etc., examined with great labour and care. — vis hu- 
mana, i. q. homo ; a Graecism after Lucretius v. 208. — Maxuma 
quaeque, sc. semina. — sic omnia fatis, etc. From this slight 
matter the poet rises into a general reflection on how every- 
thing tends to decay, and requires constant care. — mere, 
referri. These, the critics say, are the historic inf. ; or, as 
Wagner terms it, the inf. absolute : see his Quaest. Virg. xxx. 
We think however that though prose-writers, as Sallust and 
Livy, may use the inf. for the imperf. indie, the same is not the 
case with poets, and that sum, videor, incipio, soleo, or some 
other verb is to be understood before these infinitives as in 
this place and Aen. iv. 422; xi. 821, soleo; so in Horace 
(C. iii. 16, 8), fore enim tutum iter et patens, sc. norant, as the 
scholiast observes) : cf. Aen. i. 444. — subigit, urges up : cf. 
Aen. vi. 302; Lucr. ii. 193. — Atque, i. q. statim, say Gellius 
(x. 29) and Servius. We think they are nearly right. The 
signification of atque in this construction seems to be and 
forthwith, with at times, as here, a kind of pause before it. 
Si in jus vocut atque eat, XII. Tables ; Ille atque praectps 



book i. 195-208. 167 

cum armis procidit ante proram, Liv. xxvi. 39 ; At que illud 
prono praeceps agitur decursu, Catull. lxv. 23, which place 
our poet evidently had in view. Cf. Ec. vii. 7 ; Aen. iv. 663 ; 
vi. 160; vii. 29. We should make a pause after remisit, and 
understand, 'all his labour is undone,' or something of that 
kind. Wunderlich understands by ilium the boat ; alveus, 
the current. 

204-207. The husbandman must attend to the rising and 
setting of the constellations as much as the sailor : he gives 
three of them as examples. — Arcturi. The principal star in 
Bootes, put here for the entire sign : see on v. 68. — Haedorum. 
The Kids are two stars in the arm of Auriga. This constel- 
lation, Pliny says (xviii. 28 and 31), rises on the 25th of April 
and 27th of September, and brings stormy weather. — servandi, 
i. q. observandi. — Anguis. This sign is situated between the 
two Bears near the north pole. — in patriam, i. e. in Italiam. — 
vectis, i. e. qui vehuntur in navibus. — Pontus, sc. Euxinus. 
This sea was very stormy, especially in the spring and autumn, 
the time when the above-named constellations rose,—; fauces 
Abgdi, the strait of the Hellespont. He calls it ostriferous, 
as it abounded with oysters. Ennius (following Archestratus, 
a Greek poet) says, Mures suntAeni, ast aspra ostrea plurima 
Abydi. Cf. Catull. xviii. 4. Oysters are still to be found there. 
— tentantur, are tried : see on Ec. i. 50. 

208-230. The poet now specifies the times of sowing the 
various kinds of seeds. — Libra, the Balance, as the space be- 
tween the signs of the Scorpion and the Virgin was named : 
see on v. 33. — die for diei, an old form of the gen. and dat. of 
the fifth declension : see Plaut. Amph. i. 1, 120 ; Poen. iv. 2, 
68 ; Hor. C. iii. 7, 4 ; Ov. Met. iii. 341 ; vi. 506 ; vii. 728 ; 
Cic. Rose. Amer. 45, 131 ; Sail. Jug. 21, 2 ; 52, 3 ; Tac. Ann. 
iii. 34. Gellius (ix. 14) says, that in a copy of this poem 
which was said to be Virgil's own autograph the reading was 
dies ; and Wagner is inclined to regard this as the true read- 
ing, only taking it as an ace. plur., not a gen. sing. The final 
s, he says, may have been absorbed in consequence of the 
next word beginning with that letter. — somni, i. e. noctis, the 
effect for the cause. — pares horas. At the equinoxes (and he 



168 GEORGICS. 

here means the autumnal one) the day and night are each of 
twelve hours. — 209. Et medium, etc., and equally divides the 
circle between light and shade, i. e. while the sun is passing 
through one half of his diurnal course (orbem) it is day, while 
through the other it is night. — 210. Exercete tauros, i. e. plough 
the land for seed. Tauros, i. q. boves. — hordea : see on Ec. v. 
36. — Usque, etc., until toward mid-winter. It is only in the 
Apennines that there is frost and snow in the early part of the 
winter ; in the rest of Italy it is only the rain that impedes 
the husbandman. He calls the bruma intractabilis, because 
field-work cannot be done in it. By bruma we are to under- 
stand (like soktitium, v. 100) the time before and after the 
bruma. Barley here (like spelt, v. 101) seems to stand for all 
kinds of grain, for the agricultural writers direct far and wheat 
to be sown at this time. At the present day in Italy, barley 
is sown in the spring. — extremum. The difficulty which this 
term presented to Martyn may be perhaps best obviated by 
supposing that in Virgil's usual manner, though joined with 
imbrem, it really belongs to brumae, merely denoting that the 
bruma was at the end of the year. Pliny says expressly, Hor- 
deum nisi sit siccitm ?ie serito. The meaning of the poet then 
is, that barley might be sown even in December. — Necnon, 
etc., it is also time to sow flax- and poppy-seed. Seges is here 
used, with the ordinary poetic licence, for the seed. He calls 
the poppy Cereal as being sacred to the goddess Ceres, as she 
was said to have calmed her grief for the loss of her daughter 
by eating its seeds.— jamdudum, already, intimating haste. — 
nubila pendent, the clouds are suspended, do not yet come 
down in rain. The flax was sown all through October and 
November, the poppy in September and October. We sow 
flax only in the spring. The reason why we sow it and barley 
and beans so much later than is directed here, is on account 
of the severity of our winter, which only wheat, rye, and one 
kind of vetch can stand. Hence, as Martyn observes, may 
be explained Exod. ix. 31, 32: "And the flax and the barley 
was smitten, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was 
boiled (in blossom). But the wheat and the spelt (not rye) 
were not smitten, for they were not grown up (were not yet 






book i. 208-220. 169 

in ear)." — 215. Vere fabis satio, etc., spring is the time for 
sowing beans, lucerne and millet. Varro and the other writers 
on agriculture say that beans should be sown in October or 
November. — Medica, sc. herba, h Mtjcik)) (tvou), lucerne or 
Burgundy trefoil: it was so called as having been brought 
into Greece from Media, or rather the East. Columella (ii. 11) 
directs that it should be sown in April on land that had been 
ploughed up in the beginning of October, and left fallow all 
through the winter : hence the poet says putres sulci. It lasted 
ten years in the ground. — 216. milio venit annua cura, ' an- 
nual care comes to the millet'; because, contrary to the lucerne, 
it required to be sown every year. — Candidus, etc. The time 
for sowing millet is when the sun enters Taurus, i. e. in April ; 
but how beautifully is this expressed ! " When the gleaming 
bull with his gilded horns opens the year." There are two 
allusions here, the latter of which has escaped the critics : 
the one is to a derivation of the name of the month in aperit 
annum ; the other to the Roman Triumph in which milk-white 
oxen with gilded horns, which were afterwards offered in sa- 
crifice to Jupiter on the Capitol, opened the procession : see 
Plut. Aemil. Paulus, 33. — Canis, Sirius, the dog-star. This 
star sets heliacally, i. e. is lost in the effulgence of the sun, a 
few days after he has entered Taurus. It is therefore said to 
give way (cedere) to this sign. — adverso astro, sc. Tauro, a 
dat. ; for Taurus, from his position on the sphere, directs his 
horns, as it were, against Sirius. The poet here too had an 
image before his mind, namely that of a bull keeping off a 
dog. — 219. At si, etc., 'But if you till your ground with a view 
to wheat and spelt, your sowing should take place somewhat 
later.' — robusta, hardy. — solis aristis, bearded grain alone (i. e. 
wheat and spelt), as opposed to the beans, etc. of the preceding 
verses. — Ante tibi, etc., ' Do not sow till the Pleiades and the 
Crown of Ariadne have set,' i. e. not till after the middle of 
November. Pliny (ii. 47) and Didymus (Geopon. ii. 14) give 
the 11th of November (III Id.) as the time of the cosmic or 
morning setting of the Pleiades. According to Democritus 
and Didymus (Geopon. ut siqj.), Ptolemy and Aetius, the 
Crown sets from the 15th of November to the 19th of Decern- 



170 GEORGICS. 

ber. As however Columella (xi. 2, 73), Pliny (xviii. 74) and 
Hyginus (Astron. 5) say that it rises in the beginning of Oc- 
tober, it was considered by some that the poet had fallen here 
into an error, which they proposed to emend by making dcce- 
dat signify depart from, sc. the sun, and thus mean rise. But 
this is contrary to the poet's usual employment of this verb: see 
v. 450; iv. 466 ; Ec. ii. 67- — 222. Gnosia stella. Ariadne, whose 
crown was placed in the skies by Bacchus, was the daughter 
of Minos, king of Cnossus, in Crete. Stella is here i. q. sidus. 
The Crown is named ardens, or burning, on account of the 
brightness of the stars composing it, one of which is of the 
second magnitude. — Invitae terrae, to the earth unwilling, as 
it w r ere, to receive it, as conscious that she could not do it 
justice, as being sown too soon. — properes credere, for credas, 
to express more strongly his condemnation of the practice. — 
225. Midti, etc., ' Many, no doubt, have begun (i. e. do begin, 
aoristice) their sowing before that time; but what has been 
the consequence?' Columella says (\i. 2, 80), Veins est agri- 
colarum proverbium, Maturam sationem. saepe decipere solere, 
seram nunquam quin mala sit. Hoblyn notices an English 
adage, " It is better to sow out of temper than out of season." 
— Maiae, i. e. Pleiadum, of whom Maia was one. — vanis aris- 
tis, with false lying ears ; as containing no grains or small 
ones. For this sense of vanus, see Aen. i. 392. — Si vero, etc. 
But if you cultivate vetches, kidney-beans and lentils, you 
should begin when Bootes (Arcturus, v. 204) sets achronyc- 
ally, i. e. from the 29th of October to the 2nd of November, 
and continue your sowing even after the frosts have begun. — 
vilem, cheap ; on account of their abundance. — Pelusiacae, 
i. e. Egyptian. Pelusium was a town at the mouth of the 
most eastern branch of the Nile. Egypt was famed for its 
lentils. — sementem, your sowing ; ace. of sementis. 

231-256. The poet, from the consideration of the uses of 
the celestial signs in directing the labours of the husbandman, 
is led to a splendid digression on the zodiac, the zones, and 
other subjects of astronomy. — Idcireo, etc. 'Therefore, for this 
reason (i. e. the direction of the husbandman,) the golden 
sun governs his annual path, which is measured out into parts, 



book i. 222-236. 171 

through twelve signs of the heavens.' — orbem, se. annuum. See 
v. 209. Annnus exactis completur mensibus orbis, Aen. v. 46. 
— duodena, i. e. duodecem. Cf. Ec. viii. 73. — mundi. The Ro- 
mans named the vault of heaven mundus : see Ec. iv. 9, 50. 
It may here be joined either -with orbem or astra, or even with 
sol: the construction with astra seems the most natural. — au- 
reus sol. Ennius (Ann. i. 1 09. ed. Spang.) has sbnul aureus exo- 
ritur sol. — 233. Quinque, etc. The ancient geographers divided 
the meridian semicircle of the earth from north to south into 
30 equal parts (each of 6 of our degrees), of which 15 were on 
each side of the equator, and these they again divided into 
three portions of unequal magnitude, thus forming five zones 
or belts. For 4 parts, or 24 degrees on each side of the Line 
(8 in all), formed what was named the Torrid Zone ; while the 
succeeding 5 parts, or 30 degrees, i. e. from 24 to 54, com- 
mencing at the Tropic, formed a zone on each side of the Torrid 
Zone, which was called a Temperate Zone ; and 6 parts, or 36 
degrees, that is, from this zone to the Pole, formed a zone 
named Frigid. It was believed that the Temperate Zones 
alone were habitable ; and as the progress of discovery led 
men northward of the 54th degree, two parts were taken from 
the Frigid and added to the Temperate Zones, which thus 
contained 7 parts, and extended to the 66th degree of lati- 
tude. — rubens, red. Voss thinks that he may have used ru- 
bens of the Torrid, and caeruleus of the Frigid Zones, because 
they were marked by these colours in the geographical tables, 
which he fancies is intimated by Claudian De XL P. i. 257. 
But Claudian most probably had this place of Virgil in view, 
and it seems more likely that these colours were suggested to 
the poet by nature. — 235. Quam circum extrema, etc. These 
are the Frigid Zones, which he therefore calls extreme, or dis- 
tant. The use of the word circum is not quite correct here, as 
the zones are parallel, not concentric, circles. — trahuntur, are 
drawn ; taken perhaps from the act of describing a circle. — 
Caeridea glacie, with blue ice. Caeruleus is i. q. caehdeus 
(from caelum), the first I for euphony being changed into r. 
Its proper meaning is therefore azure, but it gradually came 
to signify all shades of blue : see Aen. v. 10. — concretae. This 

i2 



172 GEORGICS. 

refers properly only to glacie, and not to imbribus, but liber- 
ties of this kind must be conceded to a poet. Again, as it is 
zones of heaven that he is speaking of (v. 233), the mention 
of ice is not quite appropriate. — atris. Rains are so called, as 
darkening the sky. — 237. medium, sc. zonani. The torrid zone. 
— mortalibiis aegris, to wretched men, SeiXolai ftporoTai. Cf. 
Aen. ii. 268. Primae frugiferos fetus mortalibus aegris 
Dididerunt quondam \ praeclaro nomine Athenae, Lucr. vi. 1. — 
238. via secta per ambas, sc. zonas temperatas, i. e. the Eclip- 
tic, in which the earth really, the sun apparently, passes every 
year. Per ambas is between both ; for as these zones begin 
at the Tropics, the sun can never enter them. Per has the 
same signification in v. 245. Via secta is, as usual, from Lu- 
cretius, who says (v. 273), Qua via secta semel liquido pede 
detulit tindas. — 239. Obliquus, etc. In which the oblique order 
of the signs might revolve. By obliquus is indicated the ob- 
liquity of the ecliptic, which cuts the equator at an angle of 
23-jL degrees : but as the circle is immoveable, it is the sun, 
and not the signs, that revolves in it. — Mundus, the celestial 
vault, the visible heaven. — Scythiam. The whole North was 
thus denominated : see on Ec. i. 66. — Phipaeas arces, the Rhi- 
paean mountains. Arx signifies any elevated point, as Rho- 
dopeiae arces, iv. 461 ; Parnasi arx, Ov. Met. i. 467. The 
Rhipaean mountains were supposed to be far away in the 
north ; the Hyperboreans dwelt behind them : see Mytho- 
logy, p. 34. — arduus consurgit, rises high, is elevated in the 
northern hemisphere. — 241. premitur, is pressed down, sinks. 
— devexus (from deveho), carried down, inclined. — Libyae in 
austros, toward the south regions of Libya, i. e. in the south- 
ern hemisphere. — 242. Hie vertex, this pole, sc. the northern. 
IloXos (a 7roXew), or vertex (a verto), is that which revolves, 
or that on which anything revolves. — semper sublimis, is al- 
ways elevated, always over us, and therefore visible. — at ilium, 
the other, the southern pole. — Sub pedibus, etc. According 
to the cosmology of the ancients (see Mythology, p. 90), 
the abode of the dead was within the earth : the southern 
hemisphere therefore, if below us, was below them. Styx, 
one of the rivers of Erebus, is put for the whole region. 



book i. 237-250. 173 

Manes, in the Roman religion, were the departed spirits of 
men : he terms them profundi from their abode, which was 
deep within the earth. Wagner says that sub pedibus is sub 
ped. nostris, referring to Aen. iv. 491 ; vi. 256, but we think 
he is in error. Sub pedibus is merely below, under ; he was 
led to employ this phrase by the personality of the Manes. — 
244. Maximus hie, etc. Here the huge Snake with sinuous 
bend glides along, like a river, around and between the two 
Bears. He says around and between the Bears, because it 
goes round the Lesser, and the Greater lies outside of it. — 
metuentes tingi, i. e. non tinguntur, they never set. Thus Ho- 
race has (C. ii. 2, 7), penna metuente solvi, i. e. non solvenda. 
— ut perhibent, as they say ; for the southern hemisphere was 
unknown to the ancients. Virgil frequently uses this phrase. 
Cf. ii. 238 ; iv. 323, 507 ; Aen. iv. 179 ; viii. 135, 324. — intem- 
pesta not, dark night, in which nothing can be done. Varro 
(L. L. vi. 7) says, " Inter vesperuginem (vesperum) et jubar 
(phosphorum) dicta nox intempesta, ut in Bruto Cassii 
quod dicebat Lucretia: Nocte intempesta nostram de- 
venit domum. Intempestam Aelius dicebat quoin tempus 
agendi est nullum, quod alii concubium appellarunt, quod 
omnes fere tunc cubarunt ; alii ab eo quod sileretur, silen- 
tium noctis." — 248. Semper, etc. 'And the darkness is always 
rendered dense by the night being drawn over it.' This is little 
more than a repetition of the preceding verse, and would seem 
indebted for its origin to the necessity of introducing sem- 
per. — Aut, etc. The other and the true hypothesis is, that 
there was the same vicissitude of day and night there as here. 
— Oriens, sc. Sol. Cf. Aen. v. 739. — adfiavit, has breathed, 
i. e. breathes. The light airs that precede the rising of the 



V. 244. Tfis Se Si afKpoTepas, oirj 7ror«jt(o7o ftVoppwJ, 

EiXeTrai, fieya Bavna, Spaicwv, Trepl r aj.i<pi r eayths 

Mvpios* ai 8' iipa oi (nreipris eicdrepOe (pvovrai 

"ApKTOi Kvaveov ire^vXay/jievai wiceavow. — Arat. Phaen. 45. 

V. 249. Illi cum videant solem, nos sidera noctis 

Cernere, et alternis nobiscum tempora caeli 

Dividere et noctes pariles agitare diesque. — Lucr. i. 1064. 



174 GEORGICS. 

sun are poetically ascribed to the breathing of his horses. 
Perhaps he calls them panting (anhelis), as they had had no 
rest, but were coming up-hill from the Antipodes. On the cha- 
riot and horses of the Sun, see Mythology, p. 53. — 251. Ulic 
sera, etc. ' There the ruddy evening kindles its late lights,' i. e. 
the stars. The image appears to be taken from the lighting 
of lamps in a house at nightfall. In v. 461 we have vesper 
series for the evening. Vesper here however may be, as some 
think, the evening-star, and lumina its own light ; rubens is 
hardly an appropriate epithet for that brilliant star. — 252. 
Mine, etc. ' From this regular progress of the sun through the 
zodiac we can foresee what kind of weather we are likely to 
have, and regulate the operations of agriculture and naviga- 
tion'. — tempestates. We would not, with Heyne, understand 
this term of the four seasons, nor, with others, render it storms : 
it is rather the various kinds of weather, as is intimated by the 
following dubio caelo, in the changeable sky : see on v. 27. — 
infidum marmor, the treacherous sea. From its shining be- 
neath the rays of the sun, like polished marble, Homer named 
the sea a\a papfiapeiiv. Ennius (siv. 5. Spang.) and Lucre- 
tius (ii. 766) both used marmor for the sea. — armatas, wn\i- 
o per as, rigged, fitted out. — deducere, to launch. The ancients 
drew their vessels up on the shore during the winter. Cf. Hor. 
C. i. 4, 1. — Aid, etc., 'or to cut down timber in the woods.' 
The pine, though much used in shipbuilding, seems here to 
mean timber in general. Instead of the adverb tempestive, in 
proper season, he uses the adjective agreeing with the sub- 
stantive. — 257. Necfrustra, etc. ' This observation of the rising 
and setting of the signs and of the changes of the seasons is 
therefore not to no purpose,' i. e. is very useful. — Temporibus, 
the seasons. — parem. He joins this adjective, in his usual man- 
ner, with annum, instead of temporibus ; for it is the seasons, 
not the year, that are equal. 

259-267. He now tells the husbandman how he may em- 
ploy himself usefully in broken weather. — Frigidus imber, 
cold rain. The epithet seems to belong to rain in general, 
and not merely to that of winter, as is intimated by si quando, 
if at any time.— properanda, 'which should be hurried through,' 



book i. 251-270. 175 

and therefore probably be badly done. — Maturate, to prepare 
in time. For this difference between properare and maturare, 
see Gell. x. 11. — datur, sc. occasio, licet, you may. — durum, etc. 
For example, the ploughman takes his worn share to the 
forge and gets it pointed. — procudit, he hammers out, i. e. 
causes to be hammered out. — cavat, etc. Another hollows out 
troughs or bowls from the trunks of trees. The lintres were 
used in the vintage, Cato 1 1 ; Tibull. i. 5, 23. Or perhaps lin- 
tres may be taken in its original sense of canoes. — 263. Autpe- 
cori, etc., 'or marks his sheep,' which was done as with us, by 
putting on the owner's name with hot pitch : Colum. xi. 2, 14 
and 38 ; Calpurn. v. 84. — numeros, etc., ' puts (as Servius ex- 
plains it) tablets on the sacks or vessels which contain his 
corn, etc.,' indicating the quantity contained in them. The 
verb impressit, we may observe, properly refers to pecori sig- 
num. — Exacuunt alii, etc., ' others point stakes and forks ', to 
support their vines : see ii. 359 ; Colum. xi. 2. — Atque, etc., 
'and prepare willows for tying the vines'. — Amerina, epith. or- 
nans. Ameria in Umbria, near the Tiber, was famous for its 
willows. — Nunc, etc., 'now too is the time for making baskets 
of briars.' The adjective facilis properly belongs to v.irga : 
see on v. 25S.—Jiscina. This was a basket into which the 
grapes were gathered : Cato 26. Quod tu, mi gnate, quaeso ut 
in pectus tuum demittas, tanquam vindemiator in jiscinam 
Naevius in Andromache. — Nunc torrete, etc. This roasting, 
or rather drying, of corn was probably equivalent to our kiln- 
drying, previous to grinding : it was used chiefly with spelt, 
millet, and panic, which, says Servius, " moli, nisi ante fue- 
rint tosta, non possunt." Even in a great part of England 
wheat is not kiln-dried. — frangite saxo, grind it: see Aen. i. 
179; Lucr.i. 881. 

268-275. Quippe etiam, etc. The connexion seems to be, 
* You should not be idle on wet days, for even on holidays 
some kinds of work are permitted.' — Fas et jura, divine and 
human laws, according to Servius. — rivos deducere, to draw 
off the water which had been let in (inducta) on meadows for 

the sake of irrigation. — Religio, i.e. religious scruple vetuit, 

an aorist. — segeti, etc., repair, stop up gaps in, the hedges or 



176 GEORGICS. 

fences of the corn-fields. " Pontifices negant" says Columella 
(ii. 22), " segetem feriis saepiri debere." Saepire therefore 
means, 'make a new fence ;' as it was the pontifical rule that 
nothing new should be commenced on a holiday. " Ea die 
festo sine piaculo dicunfc posse fieri quae supra terrain sunt, 
vel quae omissa nocent, vel quae ad honorem deorum perti- 
nent, et quidquid fieri sine institutione novi operis potest." 
Servius. See a list of things that might be done in Colu- 
mella, tit supra. — 271. avibus, for birds of prey, or for those 
that injured the corn. — hicendere vepres. This is not among the 
cases given by Columella, and we must confess that we cannot 
see the reason of it. The commentators do not notice it. 
Perhaps the following remedy against blight in the vines given 
by Pliny (xviii. 29) may explain it: Sarmenta aut palearum 
acerros, et evulsas licrbas fruticesque per vineas camposque, cum 
timebis, incendito ; fumus medebitur. — Balantum, etc. Pon- 
tifices vetant quoque lanarum causa lavari oves nisi propter 
medicinam, Colum. ut sup. Hence the poet adds fiuvio sa- 
lubri, to show that it was only this last case that he meant. 
Balantes, the bleaters, was an onomatopoeic name of sheep, 
already employed by Lucretius ii. 379; vi. 1130. The poet 
in using it here may, as Forbiger thinks, have alluded to the 
loud bleating of sheep when they are washed. — Saepe oleo, etc. 
Markets were also held on holidays (as they are still on Sun- 
days in the south of Europe), at which the country-people 
could sell the produce of their farms or gardens. — agitator 
aselli, not the asinarius or ass-driver, but the peasant who 
thus employs his ass to carry his oil or his apples, pears, etc., 
to market. — vilibus, cheap or common. Cf. v. 227. — lapidem 
incusum, a mill-stone in which grooves are cut, that it may 
crush the corn more quickly and better. There is no autho- 
rity for taking, as Heyne does, incusus as non cusus, rudis, 
asper : see above on v. 83. — massam picis, a lump of pitch, for 
marking his sheep, repairing his wooden vessels, etc. 

276-286. Ipsa dies, etc. The days of the month, too, are, 
like those of the year, divided into two classes, as there are 
some of them on which it is not lucky to do any work. In 
this place the poet no doubt had Hesiod in view, but Pliny 



book i. 271-281. 177 

(xviii. 32, 75) says he rather followed Democritus. — alios. 
This is masculine, though we have presently quintam, septuma, 
nona. Sosip. Charisius (i. p. 1 8) says, " Sciamus pluraliter 
feminine Jiae dies et has dies non oportere nos dicere." See 
Zumpt, § 86. Wunderlich aptly quotes Tibul. iii. 6, 62. Venit 
post multos tma serena dies. — dedit, aorist — 277. Felices ope- 
rum, i. e. lucky (or rather not unlucky) days. — pallidas Orcus, 
sc. satus est. Orcus is the Latin word answering to the Hades 
or Pluto of the Greeks, and is always a person, never a place. 
See Mythology, p. 551. He is called pale on account of the 
paleness of death. — Eumenides, the Furies. How strangely 
the poet seems to have misunderstood the passage of Hesiod 
which he was imitating ! He actually confounds the Greek 
"OpKos (oath) with the Latin Orcus, and makes the Eumenides 
also be born on this day ! — Coeum Iapetumque, the Titans, a 
part for the whole. — creat, i. e. creavit. Cf. Ec. vi. 30 ; viii. 45 ; 
Aen. ix. 266. This contraction of the praet. is frequent in 
Lucretius. — Typhoea. The two last syllables are contracted 
into one, like Orphea, Ec. vi. 30; see also Aen. vi. 33; x. 116. 
Typhoeus (Tv(p(vevs) was a monster with a hundred heads, the 
offspring of Earth and Tartarus, who was struck with a thun- 
derbolt by Jupiter and buried under Mount JEtna. — 280. Et 
conjuratos, etc. Though what the poet here tells was related 
by Homer (Od. xi. 304 seq.) of the Aloi'des, Otus and Ephialtes, 
we think it is the Giants he means, who were the children of 
Earth, while Neptune and Iphimedia were the parents of the 
Alo'ides. Elsewhere (Aen. vi. 582) he relates this act of the 
Alo'ides, and his memory may have played him false on the 
present occasion. We doubt if conjurati would have been 
used of only two. — rescindere, to tear down, as it Mere, the 
rampart of; as Aen. ix. 524. — 281. Ter sunt, etc. The slow- 

V. 277. IlejitTrras 3' e^aXeaaOai eirei %a\67rat re iced aivai. 
'Ev Trep-Kry yap (pauiv 'Epivvas ajjL<pnro\eveiv 
"OpKOv yeivopevov rbv'Epis re/ce 7rrjf.i eTriopicois. 

Hes.'Epy. 802. 
V. 281. "OtTffav 67r' Ov\vpTT(p pepaaav Qepev, auTap eir' "Ocruy 
Jli'jXiov eivo<7i<pv\\ov "iv ovpavbs apfiarbs elt]. 

Horn. Od. xi. 314. 
I 5 



178 GEORGICS. 

ness of the movement in this and the preceding line is evi- 
dently intentional, in order to express the efforts of the brethren. 
The feet of v. 280 are, all but one, spondees, and in this verse 
the i in conati is not elided before imponere, and is long as being 
in arsis, while the o in Pelio is not elided, but is short, being 
in thesis. — 282. Scilicet in this place, like En ! is intended 
to arouse the attention of the reader. — Pater, Jupiter : see on 
v. 121. — Septuma post decimam. This may either mean, the 
tenth is lucky and next to it the seventh, and Hesiod has them 
both among his lucky days ; or simply the seventeenth. We 
agree with Voss in taking it in the latter sense. He quotes 
Manilius, iv. 462, Sepiima post decimam luctum et vicesima 
portat, and v. 449, Similis (pioque tertia pars est Post decimam. 
— 285. jjrensos, caught, as they had been previously in some 
measure wild. Cf. iii. 207. — licia telae addere, to put threads 
on the loom, to commence weaving. The tela is the loom, the 
licia the stamina, sultemen or woof. — nona fugae melior, etc. 
The reason of this is not very plain. The ninth, it is said, 
because there is then some moonlight, is advantageous for a 
runaway-slave, as he can then see where he is going ; while 
the dark would suit a thief muc 1, better. 

287-296. But it is not merely in the day-ti ne that the 
farmer has occupation ; there are many things that are best 
done in the night. — adeo. This word, Forbiger says, like the 
Greek particle ye, adds emphasis to the word to which it is 
joined : but see on Ec. i. 12. — gelida, cold, as opposed to the 
day. — se dedere, aorist, allow themselves to be done, i. e. may 
be done. — sole novo, just as the sun is rising — Eons, ewos, sc. 
doT/';,o, Lucifer, the morning-star ; see Aen. iii. 588. Te ma- 
tutinus Jlentem conspexit Eons, Et jlentem paullo vidit post 
Hesperus idem, Cinna in Smyrna. — stipidae. The ancients in 
their reaping usually only cut off the heads of the corn, leaving 
the straw to be cut afterwards. See Terms of Husbandry. — 



V. 284 Koupij Se re rerpds 

Meaai], ry £e re /xfiXa Kai elXi7roSas eXitcas fiovs, 
Kal Kvva icap%ap6coi'Ta izai ovprjas raXaepyovs 
Uprjvveiv eirt %e7pa rtSei's. — Hes. "Epy. 794. 



book i. 282-297. 179 

289. arida prata, upland meadows, as opposed to irriguous 
ones. The reason for this and the preceding precept is, that 
the dews of night and morn make the straw and grass resist the 
scythe. Our gardeners usually mow the short grass on plea- 
sure-grounds early in the morning or in the evening for this 
reason. — nocf.es, the ace. plur. governed of deficit. Some read 
noctis, others node. — lentus, tough, i. e. that makes tough. — 
Et quidam, etc. The foregoing are the occupations of the 
summer-nights ; the following belong to winter-nights. — seros, 
etc., sits up late by the light of the fire in winter. So we 
would understand it (and not by the light of the lamp), taking 
ad luminis ignes to be i. q. ad lumen ignis. We doubt if 
ignes is ever used of the flame of a lamp. Cf. ii. 432. — 292. 
faces inspicat, points torches, i. e. makes them, as they were 
always brought to a point. — Interea, etc. While he is thus 
engaged, his wife is occupied with her loom ; spinning and 
weaving being the chief occupations of domestic females in 
ancient times. — cantu, with singing. See Aen. vii. 12; Horn. 
Od. x. 221. — solata, i. q. solans : see on Ec. iii. 106. — Arguto, 
etc. He repeats this verse slightly altered, Aen. vii. 14. The 
pecten in a loom is the comb, or that part which drives up the 
warp or transverse thread every time the shuttle is thrown. 
As it makes a noise in the operation he calls it argulw: — Aut 
dulcis, etc. Or else he boils down the must or new wine to the 
consistence oisapa or defrutum (see on iv. 268), skimming it 
with vine-leaves. This verse is hypermetric, the em in humo- 
rem being elided by the vowel with which the next commences. 
— Vulcano, fire : see Aen. vii. 77. — uiidam trepidi aheni, i. e. 
tindam trepidant aheni, by the usual transposition. 

297-310. He now passes to the day-time and the work to 
be done in it, namely, in summer-time, reaping and threshing. 
— rubicunda Ceres, the corn (i. e. wheat) that is growing 
brown. Antequam ex toto grana indurescant, cum rubicun- 
dum colorem traxerunt messis facienda est, Colum. ii. 21, 2. 
Ceres is put for corn, like Vulcan us for fire, v. 295. — succidi- 
tur, because in general only the heads were cut off. — medio 
aestu. These words have perplexed the commentators : their 
natural sense is in the mid-day heat of summer ; but that is 



180 GEORGICS. 

not the time for reaping, though it is for threshing. Wagner 
says, " Hoc praecipi videtur a poeta, ut messio fiat non ipso 
quideni medio die, ubi quiescebant messores, sed per totum 
diem reliquum." Voss and Forbiger understand it in the 
same manner ; yet it seems a strange way of saying that mid- 
day is not mid-day. We could almost suspect the poet of 
some inaccuracy of language in assigning the same time of 
the day to reaping and threshing. The precept in Theocritus 
(x. 50) is directly contrary to that of our poet : " Apyeadai (sc. 
eel) afiioi'Tas eyetpo^erw Kopv^aWto, Kal Xrjyeiv evdovros' eXt- 
vvaai Ik to Kavjxa, i. e. to work in the morning and evening, 
and rest in the heat of the day. Perhaps Virgil had in his 
mind the following passage of Catullus (lxiv. 355), Namque 
velut densas prosternens cidtor aristas Sole sub ardenti 
jiaventia demetit arva. — 298. Et medio, etc. Here the precept 
is quite correct, for Theocritus (ib. 48) says, 'Snrov aXoiwvras 
<pevyev to fAeaa/jfipiroi' virvov' 'Ek KctXtifxas ayypov TeXedei Ta- 
/ttoo-oe juci/Wra. This is still the practice in the South. Sis- 
mondi (Essai sur 1' Agriculture Toscane, c. 12) tells us that 
" the country-people do not begin to thresh the corn till the 
sun is burning hot, that is, at that time of the year between 
seven and eight o'clock ; and they complain greatly if he 
happens to be obscured by a cloud ; for the hotter his rays, the 
easier is their work ; the grain is rendered thereby more elastic, 
and detaches itself more freely from the hull." — tostas, dried, 
on account of the heat. — terit area fruges, i. e.fruges teruntur 
in area. Cf. v. 192. — Nudus ara, etc. The meaning of this is, 
' Plough and sow in the spring and autumn, when you can go 
without your upper garments.' Thus the envoys of the Senate 
found Cincinnatus nudum arantem. — hiems ignava colono. 
The winter is the farmer's idle time. By hiems was under- 
stood the rainy season, of about a fortnight before and a fort- 
night after the bruma. — Frigoribus, i. e. hieme. — parto, what 
they have gained by their toil through the rest of the year. — 
convivia curant, they devote themselves to feasting. — genialis 

V. 299 yvjxvbv cnreipeiv, yvfivbv de fiowTeiv, 

Tvp.vbv o aiiaav. — Hes. "Epy. 391. 



book i. 298-308. 181 

hiems. According to the Italian theology every man had his 
guardian spirit or Genius, which it is difficult to distinguish 
from himself. When therefore he indulged himself in feast- 
ing, etc., he was said to indulge his Genius, and whatever was 
connected with this indulgence was termed genial. See My- 
thology, p. 425. — 303. pressae, deeply laden : Tibul. i. 3,40. — 
imposuere coronas. It was the custom of the ancient sailors to 
put garlands on the poops of their ships when they came into 
port, especially after a long and hazardous voyage. This verse 
occurs again, Aen. iv. 418, where, as Probus very justly ob- 
served, it would be better away. There seems to be some- 
thing wanting here ; for in a comparison beginning with As 
when, we expect, after hearing what they have done, to hear 
what they do. Perhaps we are to understand convivia curant 
from v. 301. — 305. Sed tamen, etc. Some work however may 
be done in the winter, such as gathering acorns and other 
mast and berries.— stringere-, to gather. ( Olearuni) quae manu 
stricta, melior ea quae digitis nudis legitur quam ilia, quae 
cum digitalibus, Varro, R. R. i. 55. Multi nigram vel albam 
myrti baccam destringunt, Colum. xii. 38, 7- Forbiger says 
there is a difference between the construction with an inf. and 
that with the gen. of the gerund. " Constat enim in ilia infi- 
nitivum subjecti, verbum esse merae copulae, substantivum 
denique praedicati munere fungi ; in hoc vero substantivum 
esse subjectum sententiae, a quo pendeat genitivus objecti, et 
verbum esse continere praedicatum, ut v. c. tempus est facere 
significat : facere est tempestivum (i. e. this is the proper time 
to do) ; sed tempus estfaciendi (sc. tempus faciendi-est)=sup- 
petit tempus ad faciendum." — 306. oleam: see on ii. 519. — 
cruenta myrta, myrtle-berries with blood-red juice. — 307. Turn 
gruibus pedicas. The crane was an article of luxury with the 
ancients, as with our ancestors of the middle-ages. These 
birds came to Italy in the winter, and were taken by means 
of spring-traps set in the water. Thus birds of prey are 
often taken in this country by means of the common rat-trap. 
— 308. Auritos, long-eared, as is evident from the context. In 
Plautus it is simply having ears ; but Afranius (ap. Macrob. 
vi. 5) used it either of an ass, or, as Macrobius seems to inti- 



182 GEORGICS. 

mate, of a hare. In the prologue to one of his plays he in- 
troduced Priapus saying, Nam quod vulgo praedicant, Aurlto 
me parente natum, non ita est.—figere damas. Cf. Ec. ii. 29 ; 
viii. 28. — 809. Stuppea verbera, the tow-thong, according to 
Voss. Heyne takes verbera in its ordinary sense of blows, and 
makes stuppea verbera f undue merely a paraphrasis of funda. 
Balearis is^ an epith. orn., as the people of the Balearic isles 
were famous for the use of the sling. — 310. glaciem, etc. When 
the streams drive the masses of ice along to the sea, say the 
critics ; but this only takes place in the thaw, which is surely 
not the time for hunting. Trudo, however, is simply to push 
against. Cf. iii. 373. 

311-321. After summer and winter he goes on to speak of 
the weather in autumn and spring. Cf. Lucret. vi. 356. — tem- 
pestates, the storms of wind and rain. — sidera, the constella- 
tions, such as he had already noticed (y. 204), and whose 
rising and setting were regarded as the causes or indexes of 
these changes. Perhaps temp, et sid. is a hendyadis for tem- 
pestates siderum. — brevior dies, i. e. autumn, when the days 
begin to shorten. — mollior aestas, when the summer-heat is 
moderated. — vel cum ruit, etc., when spring comes down in 
rain, which he expresses by ' the rain-bearing spring comes 
down.' This is the proper sense of the verb ruo. Cf. v. 324 ; 
iii. 470; Aen. ii. 250; v. 695; viii. 524, etc. Voss renders 
ruit, ' is ending'; and Wunderlich, ' is hastening.' — 314. Spicea 
jam campis, etc. That is, when the corn is shot out, as we say, 
and stands bristling in the fields : see on v. 151. We are to 
understand vigilanda viris. — et cum, etc. The next stage, after 
the ear has emerged from the sheath, is the formation of the 
grains in it, which at first are soft and milky (laclentia), and 
gradually swell (turgent) and grow solid. — in viridi stipula> 
on the green stalk ; as in Capitolio, in Livy, is on (not in) the 
Capitol. — 316. Saepe ego, etc. But these showers and storms 
of spring and autumn are nothing to what often occurs in the 
midst of summer itself, when reaping has commenced. — et 
fragili, etc., ' and was reaping his barley,' of which the straw 
is so brittle. For stringere, see on v. 305. — Omnia ventorum, 
etc., the winds rush into conflict from all quarters of the 



book i. 309-322. 183 

heavens. In these cases the wind veers about so suddenly, 
that it seems as if it were blowing from several points at once. 
Omnia, as usual, belongs to ventorum. — 319. gravidam, heavy, 
as being ripe ; so gravida femina. — expulsam eruerent, i. q. ex- 
pellerent erutam, by a figure of which the poet makes frequent 
use. Wagner says that if "gravidam segetem sublimem expul- 
sam cui horridiora videbuntur, is, si meminerit rem horri- 
dam et asperam h. 1. describi, artem potius poetae laudabit 
quam nitorem desiderabit." But all this criticism falls away, 
Avhen we observe that it is only in gravidam that the final m 
is pronounced by any one who reads Latin verse correctly. — 
ita turbine nigro, etc. In this place hiems is the storm, in 
general, turbo the whirlwind, which formed part of it ; and 
the epithet niger, which belongs to the whole as indicating the 
gloom and darkness which attends it, is in the usual manner 
joined with turbo. Wagner says that ita is the Greek elra, 
turn. Of this use of it Forbiger gives the following examples : 
Dico, ilium adolescentem, cum.,.sibi non pepercisset, aliquot 
dies aegrotasse, et ita esse mortuum, Cic. Cluent. 60. XJbi prima 
impedimenta nostri exerciius visa sunt, ita...subito omnibus 
copiis provolaverunt, Caes. B. G. ii. 19. — cidmum stipidasque. 
We cannot see any difference between these words ; they both 
denote the barley-straw, and the metre is the probable cause 
of their being both employed. 

322-334. But it is not merely wind that the husbandman 
has to dread in summer. There often come storms of rain and 
thunder also at that season.- — agmen aquarum. He had per- 
haps in his mind the idea of an army on its march, which 
clouds charged with rain naturally suggest, as they come march- 
ing, as it were, up the sky. Caelo is a dat— -foedam tempes- 

V. 322. 'Qs 5' vtt6 XaiXayn iraaa KeXaivt) /3e/3pi0e x9ojv 
"Hjitar" OTTwpivy, ore XafiporaTov %eei vSu>p 

Zeis 

Tuiv dt- re Travres fiev TroTafioi ttXtjOovvi peovres, 
HoXXas Se icXitvs tot' aTTOTfii)yovai x a P^pai, 
'Es S' uXa Ttop(pvper]v [leyaXa aTeva^ovai peovtrai 
'E£ 6pi(ov 67r£ Kap' jxtvvQei 5e re spy' avOptjJTrojv. 

Horn. II. xvi. 384. 



184 



GEORGICS. 



tatem, a state of the atmosphere foul (with dark rain). — 323. 
glomerant, roll together, as clouds do previous to a storm. — 
Collectcc ex alto nubes. By ex alto we would, with Voss, under- 
stand/row/ the deep, i.e. the sea ; for the clouds which bear rain 
always ascend from the horizon. If, with Heyne, we take ex 
alto to be i. q. ex caelo, we can only say that the poet was not 

a very accurate observer of nature ruit, etc., the sky comes 

down, i. e. the rain descends in torrents: see on v. 313. The 
aether is the higher region of the sky. — bourn labores, epyu 
fioujv, Hes. "Epy. 46, the ploughed lands.—; fossae, the ditches 
of the corn-fields. — cava fiumina. During the summer months 
in Italy there is very little water in the beds of most of the 
rivers, so that their channels may justly be called hollow, for 
they resemble a road running between two high banks. — 327. 
Cum sonitu. As everyone knows, who has witnessed the sudden 
rise of a stream from a heavy fall of rain.— -fretis spirantibus. 
We must here take freta to be the inlets of the sea, where it 
rushes into the land. By spiro the poet understands (Cf. Aen.x. 
291) the foaming and boiling-up of the water when driven 
against the land or the rocks. It differs little from ferveo, with 
which he here joins it ; only it is more figurative, being taken 
from the hard breathing of a man when using great force. — 
328. Ipse Pater, Jupiter himself: see v. 121. — media, etc. 
Amid the night (i. e. the gloom) of those dark, heavy masses 
of clouds. — corusca. This adjective may be joined either with 
fulmina or with dextra. We agree with the critics, who con- 
nect it with the former. — molitur, plies. There is always an 
idea of effort, of difficulty to be overcome, implied in this 
verb. — quo motu, with which commotion of the atmosphere. 
Of this construction, in which a substantive, the idea of which 
is included in the antecedent, is joined with the relative, For- 
biger gives the following instances from Sallust : Statilius et 
Gabinius opportuna loca urbis incenderent, quo tumultu fad- 
lior aditus ad Consider/! fieret, Cat. 43. Per idem tempus ad- 
versum Gallos male pugnatum ; quo metu Italia omnis con- 
tremuerat, Jug. 114. — 329. maxuma terra, yala ireXwpT], Hes. 
Theog. 173. — tremit, etc. With the present are joined aorists 
in the usual manner. — humilis pavor. From the effect, that 



book I. 323-338. 185 

makes humble. — 332. Aut Athon, etc. Naming particular 
mountains, to make the description more picturesque. Athos 
is a mountain of Thrace, which advances into the iEgeean sea ; 
Rhodope, a range in the same country ; the Ceraunian moun- 
tains are in Epirus near the Adriatic. All the MSS. read Athon ; 
the common reading is Atlio. — Dejicit, casts down, i. e. a rock 
or fragment of them. — ingeminant, redouble, increase. — Nunc 
nemora, etc. The construction seems to be to this effect. The 
south winds (or rather the winds in general), which are at- 
tended by heavy rain, lash the woods and shores with furious 
gusts. We meet venti .plangunt in Lucretius vi. 114. There 
is no authority for understanding, with Martyn and Heyne, 
plangunt as plangorem edunt, resonant. 

335-350. The modes in which injuries of this kind may be 
averted, namely an accurate observation of the state of the 
weather and the motion of the planets, and a strict attention to 
the worship of the rural deities. — menses et sidera, a hendyadis 
for mensium sidera, i. e. sidera regentia menses, i. e. the signs 
of the zodiac, through which the sun passes, thus forming the 
months of the year. This means, ' Attend to the calendars,' 
which indicate the kind of weather to be expected in each 
month. — serva, i. q. observa. — Frigida, etc., ' Attend also to 
the motion of the planets,' to which great efficacy was ascribed 
in Virgil's time, and almost down to our own days. He names, 
by way of example, two of the planets, that nearest to the sun, 
and that most remote from him. Saturn, on account of his 
distance and his consequent paleness, was regarded as cold 
and malignant. — sese receptet, betake himself to, or return to ; 
as he always pursues the same course in the sky. — ignis Cylle- 
nius, Mercury. Cyllene in Arcadia was the birthplace of this 
god. — erret. Mercury, from his proximity to the sun, appears, 
as seen from, the earth, to be peculiarly erratic in his course. 
— 338. atqne, and in particular. — annua sacra refer, ' celebrate 
the festival of the Ambarvalia in honour of great Ceres :' (he 
also calls Pales magna, iii. 1). This festival was annua, as it 
returned every year ; he therefore says refer, not fer. — operatus, 
i.e. operans. Operari is i. q. sacrum facere : see on Ec. iii. 77. 
— sub casum, i. e. statim post casum. The praep. sub applied 



186 GEORGICS. 

in this way to time, denotes immediately before or after. Cf. iii. 
402 ; Aen. v. 394-. The phrase is however not to be taken too 
strictly here, as what follows shows. This festival, in effect, did 
not take place till the end of April. — 341. mollissima, mellow. 
The wine of course was that of the preceding year, which had 
grown mellow in the winter. — Turn somni, etc. This is another 
case of hendyadis; the meaning is, that it is then pleasant 
to sleep under the dense shades of the trees in the mountains. 
— 343. Cuncta, etc. This is a description of the manner of 
celebrating the Ambarvalia.— -favos, i. q. mella. This mixture 
of milk, honey and wine was probably poured on the flame of 
the altarv— -fdix hostia, i. e. a pure and proper victim, one ac- 
ceptable to the gods ; here probably a lamb, a calf, or a suck- 
ing-pig. It was led three times round the fields previous to 
being sacrificed — chorus etsocii, i. e. chorus sociorum. — vocent 
in tecta, pray her to come to their villa, and thus evince her 
favour by her presence. Cf. Hor. C. i. 30, 3. — Neque ante, etc. 
The critics all regard this as a description of another festival 
previous to harvest, noticed by Cato (134), in which a young 
pig was offered to Ceres, and incense and wine to Janus, Ju- 
piter and Juno. We are however inclined to regard it simply 
as a continuation of the account of the Ambarvalia, the poet 
merely saying, 'let no one cut his corn without having (i. e. 
till he has, antequani) celebrated that festival.' — motus incom- 
positos, rude, awkward country-dancing : see Hor. C. iii. 6, 21 ; 
Liv. vii. 2, 4. 

351-355. Signs of the weather. In what follows, Virgil, 
as the reader will see, is under great obligation to Aratus; 
perhaps also to Theophrastus, who has left a work on this 
subject. — haec, sc. the things that follow, heat, rain and wind. 
— Aestusque. See on Ec. iv. 51. — agentis, bringing with them : 
see on Ec. viii. 17. — menstrua, that marks out the months, or 
that performs her course in a month. — caderent, fall, i. e. cease 
to blow. — austri, winds in general, one being placed for all.- — 
quid, sc. signum the critics say; we however think that he 
means the various tokens of an approaching storm, which he 
proceeds to enumerate, such as the flights of birds, etc., which 
men learned by experience, saepe videntes.—propius stabulis, 



book i. 341-361. 187 

in order that they might be able to drive them in quickly 
when the storm came on. 

356-369. Continuo, avrka, immediately.— -freta ponti, the 
surface of the sea : see on Ec. i. 61 ; it here means, the part 
more distant from the land. — aridus fragor, a dry crashing, 
produced by the breaking of dry withered boughs by the wind. 
Homer has avov avaev, II. xiii. 441, and Kap<pa\eov avaev, ib. 
409 ; and Lucretius (vi. Ill), aridus sonus. — Montibus. The 
idea of the forests that clothe the mountains is included. — aut. 
By this disjunctive, which he uses frequently in this paragraph, 
we are not to understand an opposition, as if in the present 
case it were, either the more distant part of the sea will swell, 
or the billows will dash on the beach. The meaning is, that all 
these signs will occur, but that all may not happen to be ob- 
served. Thus, he means, you will see the sea swell, or, if 
you should not remark that, you will see the billows rolling to 
the shore. — resonantia longe, far-resounding, that may be heard 
at a great distance. — misceri, be mingled, sc. with the sea : 
for when the w r aves rush with force up on the shore, they mingle 
with the sand, shingle, weeds, and everything else that com- 
pose it. Cf. Aen. i. 124. — 360. Jam sibi, etc. This is a difficult 
verse; the reading of the far greater part of the MSS. is 
turn curvis ; but Wagner, Jahn and Forbiger prefer to follow 
those that read turn a curvis, saying that there is no example 
of tempero being followed by an abh without a praep. If this 
be so, the structure of the verse is precisely parallel to the 
following passage of the Auct. ad Heren. iv. 18 : Qui in ser- 
monibus et in conventu amicorum varum dixerit nunquam, eum 
sibi in concionibus credis a mendacio temper ■aturum? The 
meaning then is, ' The waves then hardly refrain from injuring 
the ships,' i. e. the ships run great risk of being wrecked. — 
mergi. These are evidently the aiQvtai of Aratus (v. 187) ; 



V. 356. Srj/xa de rot ave/ioio kcu oiSaivovffa OaXaaffa 
TiyveaQu)' sat paicpuv evr' alyiaXoi fioouvTes, 
'Aktcii t elvaXioi, ottot evSioi iixrieaaai 
Tiyvovrai, Kopv<pai re (iouifievcu ovpeos ciKpai, 

Arat. Diosem. li 



188 GEORGICS. 

for so Pliny (x. 32) renders this word in Aristotle (H. A. v. 9). 
Martyn renders mergus ' cormorant,' and Voss, ' diver ;' but 
neither of these birds, we believe, fly thus to land before a storm. 
The only bird to which this description will properly apply is 
the sea-gull (Larus fuscus, L.), which builds among rocks and 
on trees, as Aristotle (1. c.) and Pliny (1. c.) say, and haunts 
pools and marshes, as Ovid (Met. viii. 6 C 25) asserts. It how- 
ever has not the long neck which this poet (ib. xi. 791-) gives 
the mergus. — 362. Clamoremque ferunt, i. e. clamore seferunt. 
The screaming of the gulls, as they fly to the land to escape 
the storm, is a familiar sound to any one who has lived on the 
sea-coast. — marinae fulicce. The coots, according to Martyn, 
who is followed by most interpreters. Hoblyn says, the fu- 
lica is the shag (Pelicanus Carlo, L.) or cormorant, and we 
think he is right ; for Pliny (xi. 37j 44) says that the fulica 
has a crest, which is true of the cormorant, but not of the coot. 
— In sicco ludunt, sport on the beach, namely, they say, by 
flapping their wings to dry them. — paludes, the marshes. The 
poet now quits the coast, and the signs which it presents — 
364. ardea, the heron. Aratus (v. 181) relates of the heron 
(epwcws) what Virgil tells of the mergus. The palm of accuracy 
must here be given to the Latin poet ; for Aristotle says ex- 
pressly (H. A. viii. 3) that the haunts of the heron are irepl 
-els Xi/jivas teal tovs ■n-oTci/j.ovs, and, though it seeks the beach in 
search of food, it does not go out to sea. With perhaps 
the exception of Ovid, the ancient poets were however not 
very solicitous about accuracy in these matters. — 365. Saepe 

Y. 361. Kai C civ e~i 'ir]pr)v St epMCtbs ov Kara icoapov 
'E£ a\6s epxi)Tai, (piovy TTF.pl ttoWu XeXjjkws, 
Kivvpevov ke QaXaaaav vTreptyopeoir aveixoio. 
Kat ttot€ Kai Kevpoi, ottot' evoioi TTOTewvTai, 
'Av-ia pevovTutv avepuv elXrjcd (pepovrai. 
HoXXciki S' aypidces vr\<scai, i) eiv d\i Slvai. 
AWviai xepcrcua rivdaaovrai irrepvyeauiv. 

Arat. Diosem. 181. 

V. 365. Kai did vvkto. peXaivav or' dcrepes diffffoxn 

Tapfyea, rot o umQev pvpoi vTroXevKaivwvTcu, 
Aei£ex® ai Kei f° is avrrjv 6cbv epxopeiwio 
Tlvevpa-os. Id. ib. 194. 






book i. 361-374. 189 

etiam Stellas, etc. Another sign of wind ; what are called shoot- 
ing stars, well-known meteors. — 367. a tergo, behind them. For 
the motion of these meteors is so rapid, that the trace of their 
light remains on the retina of the eye after they have left the 
place whence it proceeded, and thus we see a line of light, in- 
stead of a succession of lucid points. — Saepe levem, etc. An- 
other sign is, the seeing chaff and leaves dancing as they are 
whirled about by the gusts that precede the storm. — caducas, 
fallen : see Aen. vi. 481 ; Hor. C. iii. 4, 44. It also expresses 
about to fall : Aen. x. 622. — Aut summa, etc, Or the feathers 
that have dropped from the clucks and other water-fowl sport 
and play together, as it were, on the surface of the water. 

370-392. The signs of approaching rain. — At Boreae, etc. 
Thunder, from whatever quarter of the heavens it comes, an- 
nounces rain to a certainty. He names three winds for all, as 
Aen. i. 85, and elsewhere. — Eurique. See on Ec. iv. 51. This 
and the following que are i. q. ve. — omnia plenis, etc. All the 
fields swim (i. e. are flooded), the ditches being full, and there- 
fore unable to carry off the water. F lamina abundare ut face- 
rent camposque natare, Lucr. vi. 266. — atque omnis navita, etc. 
' And every seaman on the deep takes in his dripping sails ;' 
probably because the rain was accompanied by wind, for other- 
wise there would be no necessity for it. — Nunquam impru- 
dentibus, etc. Rain never takes people unawares, such a va- 
riety of signs announce it. Prudens is i. q. providens. — 374. 
Aut ilium, etc. For example the cranes, when they perceive it 
coming, betake themselves for shelter to the valleys. — Aeriae, 
flying high in the air, jjepeai, Horn. II. iii. 7. Aristotle (Hist. 
An. ix. 10) says that they fly high in order to have a wide 
prospect, and if they see clouds and storms coming, they de- 

V. 368. "Hcjj Kai Trcnnroi, XevKr]s yfipeiov cacav9ris, 

"S,r\jx eyevovT avejiov, Kufris aXbs bmvore -iroXXoi 
"A/cpot 6Trnr\e'ui)<7i, ra (lev irdpo?, dXXa <5' biriaaw. 

Arat. Diosem. 189. 
V. 370. Avrdp or e£ evpoio Kai bk vorov a<TTpaTrrr](Tiv, 
"AXXore S' e/c '£e(pvpoio, Kai uXXore irap fiopeao, 
A?) Tore ris 7re\ayei evi Seidie vavriXos dvrjp, 
M?j fiiv ry fier ex>j TreXayos, ry S' etc Atos vcup. — Id. ib. 201. 



190 GEORGICS. 

scend and keep quiet. Theophrastus also says, that if they keep 
on the wing it denotes fair weather, as they never do so unless 
they see that it will be fair. — 375. aut bucula, etc. 'or the 
heifer, looking up to the sky, snuffs in the air.' Bucula 
(jnetri gr.~) is i.q. bos. Et boves caelum olfactantes, Plin. xviii. 
35. — Aut arguta, etc. ' or the twittering swallow flies about 
the pools.' The swallow is always observed to fly low before 
rain, because the flies and other insects, on which she feeds, 
keep at that time near the surface of the ground and the water. 
— 378. Et veteran, etc. 'and the frogs in the mud sing their 
old tune.' Voss observes, that by using the verb cecinere, (pro- 
nounced by the Romans kekinere) the poet wished to imitate 
the note of the frog, ftpeKeitexeti coat, mJ, as Aristophanes 
gives it. In veterem querelam most critics see an allusion to 
the change of the Lycian clowns into frogs by Latona; and 
Ovid, who relates that transformation (Met. vi. 316, seq.), says 
(376), Quamvis sunt sub aqua sub aqua maledicere tentant. 
Servius sees an allusion to iEsop's fable of the frogs wanting 
a king. Vetus seems here to us to be just like our old, what 
is repeated in the same unvarying manner, as we speak of a 
person's old story, old tune, etc. The original sense of queror 

V. 375. OuS' v\pov yepaviov /.taicpal ffrt%es avra Ke\ev9ct 
Teivovrai' trrpocpdSes Se 7ra\ijU7reres airoveovrai. 

Arat. Diosem. 299. 
Kai /36es ?;C?j toi Trdpos vSaros evvioio, 

Ovpavbv eiaaviSovTes, an aiOepos &><j§pi]<savT0. — Id. ib. 222. 
Vv. 375-387. Turn liceatpelagi volucres tardaeque paludis 
Cernere inexpleto studio certare lavandi ; 
Et velut insolituui pennis infundere rorem; 
Aut arguta lacus circumvolitavit hirundo ; 
Et bos suspiciens caelum, mirabile visu, 
Naribus aerium patulis decerpsit odorem ; 
Nee tenuis formica cavis lion extulit ova. 

Varro, Atacinus ap. Servium. 
V. 377. "H \ifivi]v Trepl CrjOd ^eXiCo'ves diffffovrai, 
Taarepi tvtttovgcli avrous elXv/ievov iiSwp 
"H fidXXov deiXai yeveal, vcpoiaiv oveiap, 
AvroOev e£ vSaro?, Trarepes /3oow<ri yvpivojv. 

Arat. Diosem. 212. 



book i. S75-381. 191 

(whence querulus and querela) is not to lament, but to repeat 
over and over again in the same manner. Hence the Scholiast 
on this verse of Horace (Epod. 2, 26), Queruntur in silvis 
aves, says, Veteres omnium animalium voces praeterquam, homi- 
nis, querelam dicebant. — 379. Saepius, etc. Naturalists ob- 
serve that it is the habit of the ants to bring out their eggs 
and lay them in the sun, and to take them in again at the ap- 
proach of rain. Here however the very contrary seems to be 
asserted. Aratus and Varro Atacinus, as we may see, both 
give the same view, namely that the ant brings out her eggs at 
the approach of rain. — tectis penetralibus, her covered cham- 
ber. — Angustum terens iter. This, we think, can only be justly 
understood of the one narrow path in which the ants all pass 
backwards and forwards between their hole and any place 
whither they go : see Aen. iv. 402, seq. This may be observed 
in this country ; in Italy we have often long stood gazing at the 
nigrum agmen as it moved in its narrow path, and thought of 
Virgil. It is however quite incongruous in the poet to repre- 
sent (as we think he plainly does) the ants carrying their 
eggs to a distance from their home. — bibit arcus. It was the 
vulgar opinion in ancient times that the rainbow drew up 
water at its two extremities, which afterwards fell in rain. 
In Plautus (Cure. i. 2, 4-1), the slave, when he sees an old 
woman taking a long and hearty draught of wine, cries out, 
Ecce autem bibit arcus ! pluet, Credo, hercle hodie. — e pastu, 
etc. Another sign of the approach of rain was the rooks re- 
turning early from feeding : see Excursus VI. — agmine magno. 
By using this word and exercitus in the next verse, he shows 

V. 379. Kal koIXtjs fivpiirjices 6%fjs et, wea Tcdvra 

Qciaffov avi]vkyicavro. Arat. Diosem. 224. 

V. 380. "H Sidvfii] eZ,ojve Sid fieyav ovpavbv Ipis. — Id. ib. 208. 

V. 381. A/j ivore Kal yeveal tcopaKwv, Kal QvXa koXoiuiv, 
"YSaTOS epxopevoio Atos 7rapaaijfi eyevovro, 
Qaivo/xevai dyeXtjSd, Kal iprjKeiraiv ofioiov 
$Qeyt,diievoc Kal ttov KopaKes eiovs <rraXayp:ovs 
$<Dvy ejMfiTjffavTO avv vSaros epxofievoio' 
"H Trore. Kal icpio^avTe j3apei?j SioaaKi <pwv?j 
MaKpbv etrippoiZovai Tivaia\ikvoi Trrepa 7rvKvd. — Id. ib. 231. 



192 GEORGICS. 

the great number of the rooks, and the closeness and order 
that they maintain in going from and returning to their camp 
in the trees. — 382. increpuit densis alis. This expresses very 
accurately the noise that may be heard from the motion of the 
wings of the rooks as they fly along. This noise is termed by 
Coleridge creaking, from its sound. — 383. Jam, etc. Another 
sign, the water-fowl washing themselves. The MSS. differ 
here ; the Medicean and some others of the best reading 
variae, and this, it is evident from Servius, is the original 
reading, though he says varias is the true one, which alone, 
he adds, makes sense. Wagner however, followed by Forbiger, 
reads variae, which he says is a nom. absol., referring for 
examples to Corte on Sail. Jug. 30. The other reading he 
ascribes to Servius, or to some critic whom Servius followed. 
If we read variae, we must understand eas with videas in 
v. 387. — quae Asia, etc. The swans and other freshwater 
fowl. He names the Asian meads and the Cayster in imita- 
tion of Homer. The Asian mead is a tract of land in Lydia, 
on the banks of the Cayster, by whose waters it is often over- 
flowed. Hence the poet says dulcia stagna, as its waters were 
fresh, in opposition to those of the sea in the preceding verse. 
The word Asia has the first vowel long, while in Asia, the 
name of a quarter of the world, it is short. — rimantur, search 
for their food. It is very exactly expressed by our word rum- 
mage. — Certatim, etc., vie with one another in flinging the 
water up over their heads and shoulders. — rores, like the 
Greek cpoaos and eepat), for water. — 386. Nunc caput, etc. Now 
holding their head to receive the coming wave. Caput objectare 

V. 383. IIoXXaKt Xifivalai >] eivdXiat upviOes 

"Aw\t](7-ov k\v£ovto.i eviejj,evai vvarecraii'. 

Arat. Diosem. 210. 
'Aff/^J ev Xeipwvi, Kaverpiov dptyi peeOpa. — Horn. II. ii. 461. 

V. 386. "H ~ov Krti \ciKepvt,a Trap' yiovi TrpovyovGtj 
Heiparos apxofievov ^epacp vTriicvipe Kopwvrj' 
"Rrrov icai TTOTapoio eficnbciTO p&XP l ^ap aicpovs 
"Qpovs e/c KecpaXfjs' r] kcu pdXa 7rdaa KoXvpfiqi, 
"H 770XX7) a-pefperai Trap' vdojp Trayka Kpu)'£ovcra. 

Arat. Diosem. 217. 



book i. 382-393. 193 

periclis, Aen.ii. 751. — 386. nunc currere, etc. Now running to 
meet the waves. It is evidently of the sea-fowl he is speaking in 
this place. — incassum. All to no purpose, as it were ; for they 
are no sooner out of the water than they are in it again. — 
388. Turn comix improba, the pertinacious raven : see on 
v. 1 1 9. — plena voce, with deep, hoarse voice. She calls the rain, 
as it were, to come. — Et sicca, etc., ' and slowly paces alone by 
herself along the dry beach,' in expectation, as it were, of the 
food which the storm will bring in to her. Kcu ai Kopuivai S£ 
ve/JLOVTUi (sc. Trepl Tijv SaXarrar) aTrrofievat twv eKTwrTovrcov 
%u><j)v, Aristot. H. A. viii. 3. Spatiatur expresses the stately, 
leisurely pace of the raven : see Aen. iv. 62. The alliteration 
in this verse is to be observed. — 390. Nee, etc. Signs in the 
lamps. — nocturna carpentes pensa, spinning at night. A cer- 
tain quantity of wool or flax was weighed out to each woman, 
which she was to spin in the day. Carpentes, because they 
drew it gradually from the distaff as they formed the thread. 
— hiemem, the storm of rain. — testa ardente, in the burning 
lamp. The ordinary lamps of the ancients (of which so many 
may be seen in collections) were made of potters' earth. — Scin- 
tillare, sputter. — putres fungos, the thick snuff which gathers 
on the wick in consequence of the dampness of the surround- 
ing air. 

393-400. He now gives the signs of approaching fine 
weather, first negatively and then affirmatively. Following 
Aratus, as usual, by way of variety he notices the absence of 
the signs whose presence that poet makes indicative of foul 
weather. — ex imbri, after rain. Martyn adopted the reading 
of some inferior MSS., eximbres, an adjective which is nowhere 
to be met. — soles, sunny days. Si numeres anno soles et nnbila 

V. 388 Cornicum ut saecla vetusta 

Corvorumque greges ubi aquam dicuntur et inibres 
Poscere, et interdum ventos aurasque vocare. — Lucr. v. 1083. 

V. 392. *H Xvxvow pvKtjres ayeipuvrai irepi p,v'£av, 

Uvkto. Kara. tricoTirjv, ji7]d' i]V into %ei[iaTos topy, 
Avicvuiv aXkore \ikv re <paos Kara KOffjxov opwpij, 
*A\\ore 5' attrcwtTiv airb <p\6yes, rjvre KOixpai 
Tiop.<pokvy6s, Arat. Diosem. 244. 



194 GEORGICS. 

toto, Ov. Tr. v. 8, 31. — serena, serene skies. Thus Lucretius, 
i. 1089, cacrula cadi. — 395. acies. The acies is the edge, as 
one may say, of the star, which appears sharp and not blunt; 
for the air being free from vapour, it twinkles brightly. — Nee 
frotris, etc, ' nor is the moon seen to rise beholden to her 
brother's rays'. Cf. ii. 439. Seel fades aderat nullis obnoxia 
gem mis, Prop. i. 2, 21. Though the ablest natural philoso- 
phers followed Anaxagoras, in holding that the moon derived 
her light from the sun, there were others who maintained that 
she shone by her own light. Lucretius, whom our poet loved so 
much to follow, expresses himself in the following undecided 
\erms (v. 575) : Luna que sive notho fertur loca lumine lustrans, 
JSive suam propria- jactat de corpore lucent. Virgil may have 
meant to express this last opinion, or rather to have united the 
two, supposing her to shine partly with native, partly with bor- 
rowed light, and the former to be the more brilliant. One how- 
ever would have expected the light produced by the combined 
powers to have given greater lustre. Perhaps, as aureus was 
an epithet of the sun, his light may have been supposed to give 
a yellow tinge to the pure silvery rays of the moon. Wagner 
says, " Occidentis solis radii rutilant ; hinc ita fratri obnoxia 
interdum est Luna ut ipsa rutilet." Heyne says, " Luna quae 
fratris radiis obnoxia est," as Aratus makes the brightness of 
the moon a cause of the blunting of the stars. But this 
interpretation is quite inadmissible. The sun and moon, 
whether Apollo and Diana or not, were regarded as brother 
and sister. — 397. Tenuia, etc. These are light, thin clouds, 
white and glittering like fleeces of wool : we call them mares'- 
tails, and they announce rain. Tenuia is a proceleusmaticus, 
and it becomes a dactyl by giving the u its consonant sound 
(which was to rather than v). In like manner ariete becomes 
a dactyl, by pronouncing the i as y. — Non tepidum, etc. ' The 
halcyons, or kingfishers, do not sit drying their wings on the 
rocks.' — Dilectae Thetidi, beloved of the sea-goddess Thetis ; 



V. 397. HoW&ki c ep)(Ofiev<ov veriov vifea TrpoiiCtpoiQev, 
Ola fidXicra ttokoiviv eoucora IvSaWovrai. 

Arat. Diosem. 206. 



book i. 395-406. 195 

in allusion to the opinion of their hatching their young on the 
surface of the sea, which remained calm at that time. For the 
story of Ceyx and Halcyone, who were changed into these birds, 
see Ovid, Met. xi. 268, seq. ; and Mythology, p. 319.— 399- 
— non ore solutos, etc. Another sign of approaching storm is, 
to see the pigs carrying straw in their mouths in order to make 
a warm bed for themselves : as they toss the bundles about 
when getting the straw, he uses the verb jactare. He terms 
them immundi, from their love of wallowing in mire. 

401-423. Having given the negative, he now proceeds to 
the positive signs of fine weather. — At nebulae, etc. The va- 
pours leave the summits of the hills clear and visible, and fall 
down to the lower grounds. Nebulae, e montibus descendentes, 
aut caelo cadentes, vel in vallibus sidentes, serenitatem promit- 
tunt, Plin. xviii. 35, 88. — Solis et occasum, etc. The owl, 
whose hooting is usually represented as ominous of ill, now 
hoots in vain : no one minds her, when there are so many signs 
of fair weather. Perhaps it might be better to understand 
nequicquam simply as non, not at all — 404. Apparet, etc. 
Another sign is, the seeing the birds at their accustomed avo- 
cations in the air : he gives as an instance, the Haliaeetus or 
sea-eagle pursuing the Ciris, which he selects on account of 
its mythic origin : see on Ec. vi. 74. — liquido a'ere, the clear 
sky: see Excursus on Ec. ii. 10. — 406. Quacunque ilia. The 
chase of a small bird by a bird of prey is very well depicted in 
these lines. In the last, that part of the chase is described 
where the greater bird, having missed his pounce, is obliged to 
soar into the air in order to make a second, and meantime the 



V. 399. 'AX/cvoVes yXaviccus~Nripr)i<n ral re jxdXiara 

'Opvi%iov e<piXaOev. Theoc. vii. 59. 

V. 401. Et ye fiev rjepoeoea irdpel, opeos fieydXoio 

TlvOneva reivtjrai vecpeXrj, unpen de KoXaivai 
Qaivuvrai icaBapai, fidXa icev rod' vTtevcios ehjs. 

Arat. Diosem. 256. 

V. 402 nal vvtcrepL?] yXavZ, 

"Havxov aeiSovca fiapaivofievov xeiixwvos 
TiveaQu) rot OTj/xa. Id. ib. 267. 

K2 



196 GEORGICS. 

smaller one escapes as fast as it can. — 110. Turn Uquidas corvi, 
etc. As the rooks, by hurrying home, announced rain, so their 
remaining at home, cawing and flying about their nests, is a 
sign of serene weather. — Uquidas voces, clear notes. — presso 
gutture, because the compression of the larynx or windpipe 
causes the sound to be less deep and hollow. — Inter se foliis 
strepitant, ' they make a rustle and a noise with one another 
amidst the leaves.' Every one who has lived in the country 
must have observed this. — revisere, to review, to examine 
what state they are in after the storm ; not to revisit, for they 
had, as Shakespeare says, " made wing to the rooky wood" be- 
fore it began. — 115. Haud equidem credo, etc. The poet now, 
in opposition to the Stoics, who held that there was a portion 
of the divine mind in all animated beings, attempts to explain 
these appearances on the principles of the Epicureans, who 
allowed only of matter and its modifications. — aut rerum fato, 
etc. ' or a degree of foresight beyond the fate of nature,' and 
which can therefore control it, as it were. Some join rerum 
with prudentia, and render fato, by fate. — Verum, etc. But the 
real fact is, that, as the atmosphere is condensed or rarefied, the 
organs and powers of animals are variously affected ; in fine 
weather they become cheerful, in bad weather the reverse. — 
tempestas, the weather in general. — mobilis humor, the varying 
moisture. — Juppiter uvidus, etc. This is rendered, ' Juppi- 
ter dripping with the south wind,' as if he was affected by it. 
Might we not render it better, ' the dripping Jupiter (i. e.Jup. 
Pluvius) condenses with the south wind (or with the wind in 
general) what had previously been rare; and then again he(Jup. 
but not uvidus) relaxes what was dense (but not by the south 



V. 410. Kat Kopdices fiovvoi /xev, eprjficuoi fiooiovres 

AiffffaKis. avTcip eneiTa fxeradpoa /ce/cX/yyoires" 
TlXeiorepoi 5' ayeXrjdbv eTrrjv ko'itoio jj.eSojvTa.1, 
$iov?is ejuTrXeroi, x a ^P ei v ke tls Jjioffoiro, 
Ola rd jxev, (ioowai, Xiyaivofievoiaiv bfioTa. 
IlcXXa Se SevSpeioio irepi f\6ov, dXXor e-a avrov, 
'Rx'i ~e Keiovaiv icai v-xorpoTroi aTrrepvovTai. 

Arat. Diosem. 271. 



book i. 410-428. 197 

wind).' It is very frequent with Virgil to join with a noun an 
adj. which applies to one of the verbs it governs, but not to 
another. — 420. species, the habits, disposition. — nunc, sc. dum 
relaxed. — alios dum nubila ventus agebat. As the verb is in the 
imperf., this is, we think, to be taken as a parenthesis, and re- 
fers to the previous condensation of the air, and confirms our 
interpretation of the passage. — Me, ' that,' i. e. that well-known, 
for he himself had not noticed it. — ovantes gutture : see v.410. 

424-437. The weather may also be predicted from the 
appearance of the sun and moon. He treats of the latter in 
the first place : he had in view Aratus Diosem. 46 seq. — 
solem rapidum : see on Ec. ii. 10. — limas sequentes ordine, 
i. e., says Heyne, the phases of the moon which succeed one 
another regularly. The simpler interpretation seems to be, 
' the moons that regularly follow ' (sc. the sun in the ecliptic). 
— crastina hora, the next day. Hora, i. q. dies, part for whole. 
— insidiis noctis, etc. The critics do not seem to have noticed 
the metaphor here : it appears to us to be as follows : when 
an ambush was laid in war, all care was taken to remove objects 
of suspicion, that the enemy might be induced to enter it, and 
thus be taken. So the night is often in the early part clear 
and serene, but terminates in rain. — 427. revertentes, etc. 
' When she begins (primuni) to collect her returning light,' 
i. e. when she begins to fill anew. He means the first three 

days of the moon 428. Si nigrum, etc. ' If she encloses 

dark air between her obscure horns {eornu for cornibus), there 
will be very heavy rain both on the land and the sea.' The 
moon, as is well known, derives her light from the sun, and 
the further she recedes from him the more of it she receives : 
hence as she recedes she fills. But beside the illuminated 
portion, the remainder of her disc also receives some of the 
solar rays from the earth, and when the air is quite free from 
vapour, the whole of it may be seen, though very faintly 
illuminated, while when there is vapour in the air precursive 
of rain, only the strongly illuminated portion is visible, and 
the smaller part of that, the tips of the horns, is obscure. 
The appearance of the new moon in a sky free from vapour, 



198 GEORGICS. 

such as we have just described, is thus graphically depicted 
in the old Scottish ballad of Sir Patrick Spence : — 

" I saw the new moon late yestreen, 
Wi' the auld moon in her arm." 

Niger, we may observe, is merely dark. — 430. At si virgi- 
neum, etc. ' but if she pours a virgin blush over her coun- 
tenance.' Virgineum is an allusion to the virginity of Diana. 
— suffuderit. Because a blush is caused by the blood rushing 
from below to the surface of the skin. — ore, i. e. in ore. See iii. 
439. — vento, from or with wind, when wind is near. — Phoebe, 
the moon. The Latin poets made this feminine, from Phoebus, 
a name of Apollo, which they gave to the sun. We do not 
think that they took it from the Titaness, the mother of La- 
tona. He calls her aurea, probably in reference to the rubor. 
Horace (C. ii. 11, 10) and Propertius (i. 10, 8) use rubra 
of the moon simply in the sense of bright. — ortu quarto, ' on 
the fourth day of her age.' — auctor, authority, what foretells 
or directs. Cf. Aen. v. 17. — Pura. This may refer to the sign 
of wind, and what follows to that of rain. — exactum ad men- 
sem, e to the end of the month.' — Votague, etc. It was the 
custom in ancient times, as it still is in Roman Catholic coun- 
tries, for sailors when in danger to vow offerings, in the former 
to the gods, in the latter to the saints, if they should escape 
and reach the shore in safety : see Aen. xii. 764 ; Hor. C. i. 
5, 13. — Glauco, etc. This verse, as we are informed by Gel- 
lius (xiii. 26), and Macrobius (v. 17), is from the Greek of 
Parthenius, TXavno) ku\ Nijpei ml 'Iww MeXticepn/. He has 
followed the metre of the original with its hiatus and diph- 
thong short before a vowel. Glauco j et Pano\peae et \ Ino. 
For these sea-deities, see Mythology, pp. 248, 249. Panopea 
or Panope was one of the Nereides. 

438-449. The sun, both when rising and setting, will give 



V. 438. 'HeXioio de roi fieXeru) e/carepQev iovror 
'HeXioj kcu paXXov eoiKora ar\para /ceirai, 
'AfifoTepov Svvovri ical e/c 7repa.Tt]s clviovti' 
Mjj oi 7rot/a\\oiro veov fiaWovTos apovpais 



book i. 430-447. 199 

signs of the weather : see Arat. Diosem. 90 seq. — quae mane 
refert, ' those which he brings with him in the morning ' when 
he comes back to illuminate the world : hence he says refert. 
With the second quae we are to understand only the simple 
■fert. — 441. Ille ubi nasceniem, etc. 'when shrouded in a 
cloud he has varied his rising with spots,' i. e. when he rises 
through clouds, portions of which appear on his disc. Nas- 
centem ortum is so very unusual an expression, that some 
would read orbeni here, and ortu in the next verse. But such 
is the reading of all the MSS. It is i. q. se in ortu nascentem. 
— medioque refugerit orbe. This expresses the koTKos of Ara- 
tus ; the concavus (sol) oriens of Pliny (xviii. 35, 78), when 
the centre of the disc is covered by the clouds and only its 
edge appears. — urget, i. e. instat, ingruit. — ab alto. As no 
one, we believe, ever perceived a wind to come down from the 
zenith, but always to blow from one of the lateral points, and 
as the south wind (Notus) comes over the sea to Italy, we are 
inclined to agree with those who render ab alto, 'from the deep,' 
like per altum, v. 456. At the same time we must recollect 
that our poet was not the most accurate of observers, and that 
he has elsewhere ( Aen. i. 297) used ab alio for ' from on high.' 
— sinister, pernicious. Cf. Aen. x. 110. — 445. sub lucem, i.e. 
before sunrise. — Diversi, scattered. — sese rumpent, i. e. erum- 
pent, Cf. iv. 368 ; Aen. xi. 548 — 447- Tithoni, etc Perhaps 
a little too epic for this place. The story of Tithonus, son of 
Laomedon king of Troy, wdiom this goddess carried off, must 
be known to every one : see Mythology, p. 63. — croceum cubile, 
on account of the yellow or orange colour of the eastern part 
of the horizon before sunrise in southern latitudes : " L'aurora 
gia di vermiglia cominciava, appressandosi il sole, a divenir 

KukXos, or* eiiSiov /ce^pjj/ievos ijixaros elr]s t 
M?]Se ri arifia (pepoi, (paivoiro Se \iros cnravrri. 



'AM' ov% owTTOTe koIXos eeiSSfievos 7repiTeX\y, 
OvS' ottttot aKTivo)v, at fiev votov, cti Se fSopr/a 
2%i£6juevai fidWiocn, to. S' av Ttepl jxeaaa (pae'ivy, 
'A\\a yrow ?/ veroTo Siepxerai 7) avepoio. 

Arat. Diosem. 87. 



200 GEORGICS. 

rancia" says Boccaccio. — 448. male, hardly : see on v. 360. — 
pampinus, the foliage of the vine : see the Flora, s. v. Vitis. — 
Tarn multa, etc. ' there will be such a tremendous shower of 
hail, as will appear by its rattling on the roofs of the houses.' 
It is well known what mischief hail does to a vineyard. Voss 
calls attention to the imitative harmony of the line. — 450. 
Hoc, sc. ' what I am now going to tell you.' — decedet, sc. sol. 
— Profuerit magis, ' it will avail you more.' Aratus says the 
signs in the evening are more to be relied on than those in the 
morning. Perhaps the meaning is, It will avail more to attend 
to the following signs, as you can guard against the evils 
which they portend, than to those portending hail, against 
which there is no defence nam — colores. This is a paren- 
thesis, though, as is frequently the case, it contains the sub- 
stantive which the following adjectives qualify. — errare, as 
they fleet and vary. — Caendeus, a dark leaden colour : see on 
v. 236. — Euros, wind in general. — 4-54-. Sin maculae, etc. 
• But if, while it is thus glowing, dark spots should begin to 
mingle themselves with the red, then there will be a universal 
tempest of rain and wind.' — inmiscerier, a paragogic infin.pass. 
after the manner of Lucretius, like accingier, Aen. iv. 493, and 
farier, Aen.xi. I^l.—fervere, be in commotion, from fervo, i. q. 
ferveo. — per ahum ire, to go to sea. To make the picture 
more vivid, he subjoins a part of the preparation for putting 
to sea, the loosening of the rope by which the vessel was held. 
— i58. referetque, etc. 'when he brings back the day, and 
buries it after he has brought it back,' i.e. at his rising and 

V. 450. 'E(T7repiois Kal fiaXXov dXqQia re/c/«;paio' 

"EairrjpoQev yap 6/xais <yn}\iaiverai efifieves alei. — 

Arat. Diosem. 158. 

"V. 453. Ei rt ttov t\ kcli epevQos eTrirpc'^ei, 61a re iroXXa 
'EXicofievuiv vecpewv epvOpalverai aXXoQev dXXa' 
"H elTrov fieXaveT, ical ooi to. jiev vSaros ecrrw 
^rj/xara peXXovTos' rd 8' epevBea ttclvt dvefioio. 
Ei ye fiev d/Mporipois d/ivcis /ce^pwff/tevos e'lr], 
Kat kev vccop (popeoi, Kai vTnjvejiios ravvoiTO. — Id. ib. 102. 

V. 458. Ei o' aii'rws KaQapov \iiv exoi fiovXvtyios tipr], 

Avvoi d' dvecpeXos fiaXaKrjv vtrodeieXos alyXrjv, 
Kal jiev e-irepxofJievrjs fjovs eO' VTrevSws eir\. — Id. ib. 93. 



book i. 448-466. 201 

setting: see on vv. 52 and 118.— -frustra terrebere, 'you need 
not fear ;' or, ' your fear will be idle or vain.' — claro aquilone, 
' by the clear bright north-wind,' i. e. that makes the skies clear 
and bright, aWprjyevrjs : see Mythology, p. 549. Or clarus 
may be clear-sounding, loud, \iyvs — 461. Denique, etc. In 
fine, the sun will tell what weather the close of eve brings 
with it, from what quarter of the sky the wind will chase the 
clouds, what rain the south-wind may be preparing. — serenas 
nubes, instead of ser. ventus or ser. caelo, is certainly a very 
bold expression. — cogitet Auster, ' Auster (the wind-god) may 
be meditating.'— -falsum, i. e. vanum,fallacem,fallentem. Voss, 
we think with some reason, regards falsus as the past part, of 
the verb fallor in the middle voice, in which case it may be 
used for the part, praes. We are to recollect that it is Sol, the 
sun-god, of whom the poet is speaking. — caecos, dark, secret. 
Thus caecae fores, Aen. ii. 453. It is probably in this sense 
that we call a blind alley one that is not pervious. — tumultus. 
By this word the Romans understood a war in Italy, that is 
a Cisalpine war ; hence tumultus Gallicus.—fraudem, treason, 
treachery : see Aen. vi. 609. — tumescere, to swell, to begin to 
heave. The metaphor is taken from the sea, which swells as 
the wind increases before the storm : see ii. 479. — 466. Ille 
etiam, etc. ' Not only does he so in general, but he gave a 
particular proof when, after the murder of Caesar, he became 
so dark that the world feared an eternal night.' It would 
seem from the prodigies about to be enumerated, that in the 
year of Caesar's death there were volcanic eruptions and 
earthquakes similar to those which devastated Calabria in 
1783, and which caused obscurity in the atmosphere of the 
whole of Europe for the greater part of that year. Modern 
astronomers, Wunderlich tells us, assert that there was an 
eclipse of the sun in the November of the year that Caesar 
was slain : this however is a matter of no importance ; an 
eclipse, which is over in a few hours, would never account 
for the effects which not only poets but historians narrate : see 
Dion xlv. 17. Plutarch (Jul. Caes. 69) describes the phaeno- 
mena of the atmosphere at that time in exact accordance with 
those of 1783. — -ferrugine. This colour, according to Nonius, 

k5 



202 GEORGICS. 

is our iron grey, that of iron free from rust (rubigo), and 
hence it signifies dark-blue. Plautus (Mil. iv. 4, 42, 43,) 
gives this as the colour of a sailor's clothes, which seems there- 
fore not to have varied from that time down to the present 
day. Elsewhere Virgil uses it to express the violet hue of 
the hyacinthus (iv. 183), and of a variety of purple (Aen. ix. 
582 ; xi. 772). He also uses it of Charon's boat (Aen. vi. 303) 
in the sense of dark. — 468. Impia saccida, the impious race, 
that perpetrated or witnessed the murder of Caesar. Or per- 
haps the expression is to be taken more generally. Saecula, 
or saecla, is a favourite term with Lucretius, ex. gr. i. 21 ; ii. 77 ; 
iii. 753. Our poet uses it again, v. 500, and Aen. i. 291. 

469-4SS. He now enters on a splendid digression on the 
prodigies and wars which attended that fatal event, and, con- 
necting themfinely with his subject,he thus concludes thebook 
on tillage. ' Though indeed,' says he, < not only the sun, but 
all the other parts of nature, animate and inanimate, bore 
witness to the atrocity of that direful deed.' — aequora pond: 
see v. 246. — Obscoenae canes. This is the reading of the 
Medicean MS. ; the common reading is obscoeni canes. Virgil 
uses the fern, of this word also Aen. vi. 257 ; vii. 493. " So- 
lent enim poetae in nominibus epicoenis femininum genus 
usurpare ; v. Heins. ad Ov. Met. iii. 140." Jahn. The literal 
meaning of obscoenns (from coenum) is filthy, begrimed with 
mire. It may here be taken in this sense, but it is better to 
understand it as inauspicious, of ill omen, on account of im- 
portunae which follows. — importunae, " quae in alienum s. non 
opportunum tempus ruebant." Servius ; the owls and other 
nocturnal birds appearing in the daytime. — 471. Cyclopum 
in agros. The Cyclopes of Homer had been localised at the 
foot of Aetna in Sicily. — effervere, to boil out. — in agros, over 
the fields. — undantem, bubbling up, like a pot of water on the 
fiYe.—for?iacibus, i. e. the crater. — liquefacta saxa, the lava. — 
474. Armorum sonitum, etc. The appearance of the northern 
lights, which are often attended with a crackling sound. — in- 
solitis, etc. This may refer to the falling of avalanches ; for 
the Alps are not subject to earthquakes. — 476. Vox quoque, 
etc. This prodigy occurs more than once in the Roman 



book i. 468-489. 203 

history, ex. gr. before the city was taken by the Gauls : Hist, 
of Rome, p. 1 15. — 477. simulacra, etc. The shades of the de- 
parted. Sed quaedam simulacra modis pallentia miris, Lucr. 
i. 124. — sub obscurum noctis, before the night became quite 
dark. — pecudes locutae, etc. This and the following prodigies 
occur continually in Livy : the sweating of the ivory and brass 
was of course owing to the moisture of the air. — 481 . Proluit, 
etc. The Po too overflowed its banks and deluged the sur- 
rounding plains. Proluit, washed away. — verlice, i. q. vortice, 
whirl. — Fluviorum. The anapaest here becomes a spondee 
by pronouncing ias«/: see on v. 397. — Tristibus, etc. The 
ancients, as is well known, used to derive auguries of the 
future from the appearance of the exta (i. e. the viscera, the 
heart, lungs and liver) of the victim. The Jibrae are said by 
Servius to be " venas aliquas, quae si forte apparerent in 
visceribus, malum omen erat." — Aut puteis, etc. Of this 
prodigy we have met no mention anywhere else. Showers of 
blood are often related to have fallen. — el altae. This also 
was an ordinary prodigy. — 487. Non alias, etc. Lightning 
or thunder in a clear sky was considered to be a prodigy : see 
Hor. C. i. 2, 3 ; 34, 5. — Cometae: see on Ec. ix.46. Comets 
were even in modern times held to portend commotions in 
states. It is however probable that by cometae the poet meant 
meteors in general, for comets do not usually appear in 
numbers. 

489-497. Ergo, ' therefore,' for these signs could not be 
without effect. — paribus telis, with like weapons, or, as Lucan 
expresses it (i. 6), infestis obvia signis Signa, pares aquilas et 
pila minantia pilis. — iterum. We would join this word with 
concwrere, not with videre, as many have done. In reading 
v. 490, it is better to place the caesura after iterum than after 
acies. — indignum superis, unworthy of the gods, unsuitable to 
their scheme of governing the world. Voss explains it, ' nor 
was it in the eyes of the gods unworthy of our guilt.' — Ema- 
thiam. By this name we think Virgil here means Thessaly, as 
Lucan (i. 1) calls the scene of the battle of Pharsalia Ema- 
thios campos. Livy (xl. 3) says that Emathia was the an- 
cient name of Paeonia. It came then to signify Macedonia, 



204 GEORGICS. 

and, as the ancient poets were by no means accurate or careful 
in their dealings with geography, we find it, as here, extended 
to Thessaly, which in its turn Lucan (x. 449) extends so as to 
include Mount Haemus. What Virgil means to express, we 
think, is this : ' the earth Avas fattened with our blood twice, 
once in Thessaly and again in Thrace.' At the same time we 
will not by any means pledge ourselves for the geographical 
accuracy of the poet's views. — Haemi, now called the Balkan. 
The plains of Haemus can only be a periphrasis for Thrace, 
as Philippi is far distant from that range. — 493. Scilicet, etc. 
' yea and there will come a time.' He thus connects this di- 
gression with his subject. — molitus, i. q. moliens : see on v. 206. 
Here however it may be taken in its proper sense, for he must 
have turned up the earth before he could see what it contained. 
— pila, the well-known weapons of the Roman legions : see 
Hist, of Rome, p. 171. — Aut gravibus, etc. 'Or, as he is break- 
ing the ground with his heavy iron rake, he will strike it 
against the empty helm of some long since fallen warrior.' — 
Grandia, etc. 'And when with his plough or spade he opens 
the ground where some warrior lay, he will view the size of 
his bones with wonder.' It was the opinion of the ancients, at 
least of the poets, that the human race became of smaller di- 
mensions in each succeeding age. See Horn. II. i. 262 ; Hes. 
"Epy. 129 ; Aen. xii. 899. The poet here intimates that these 
discoveries would be made by a generation to Avhom the men 
of his own time would be as heroes in dimensions. 

498-514. He concludes with prayers to the tutelar deities 
of Rome, that the younger Caesar may be enabled to avert the 
ruin of the empire, and give it both external and internal 
tranquillity. — Di patrii, Indigetes. We agree with those who 
think that by these two separate classes of gods are meant, the 
copula being omitted as in v. 6. The di patrii (wa-pdjoi) are 
the protecting gods of the state, the Di magni as the Penates 
and Vesta ; the Indigetes are the Qeol ly^ojptoi, Lares, deified 
mortals, such as Aeneas and Romulus. He then, by a peculiar 
kind of epexegesis, names one of each class, viz. Vesta and 
Quirinus. In these cases the first of the single particular in- 
stances is always joined by a copula to the general denomination. 



book i. 493-512. 205 

Cf. Aen. v. 240 ; vi. 831 ; viii. 698, etc. — Tuscum. The Tiber 
was called the Tuscan river, because it bounded Etruria from 
its source to its mouth. — Palatia. The Palatine hill, at the 
foot of which was the temple of Vesta, and on which Caesar 
resided. — Hunc saltern, etc., 'this younger Caesar, at least ;' for 
the dictator had been murdered. — saeclo: see on v. 468. — 
Satis, etc. It was an opinion universally established in anti- 
quity that the sins of the parents were visited on the children. 
This transmitted guilt, named ayos, piaculam, could only be 
removed by peculiar sacred rites performed by a man of pre- 
eminent sanctity. It seems further to be a condition that this 
person should not be one of the descendants of him who had 
sinned ; and the Julian house, whom the poet wished to flatter, 
derived their lineage from Anchises, not from Laomedon. 
Laomedonteae is an adjective denoting guilt; as Laomedon, by 
defrauding Hercules of the horses which he had promised him 
for delivering his daughter Hesione from the sea-monster, com- 
menced the series of perjury which brought the divine wrath 
on Troy. — Jam pridem, etc. : see v. 24 ; Cf. Hor. C. i. 2, 45. 
— triumphos, i. e. honours ; for he had not yet celebrated a 
triumph. — 505. ubi, " i. e. apnd quos." Heyne. Adverbs of 
place are frequently thus employed : it may however be taken 
as an adverb of time, token, and est be understood after ullus 
in v. 506. — versum, i. e. confusum. — tot bella, etc. He means, 
perhaps, the expeditions of Antonius against the Parthians, 
and of Caesar, by himself or his general Agrippa, against the 
Germans and Illyrians. — -fades, forms, kinds. — dignus, suit- 
able. — squalent, are gone to weeds. — abductis, taken away to 
serve as soldiers. — rigidum, straight, as opposed to curvae. — 
conjlantur, are beaten into. Flare and conflare properly sig- 
nify to melt metals, from the blowing of the bellows. — Eu- 
phrates, the Parthians : see Ec. i. 63. — Vicinae, etc. This is 
thought to refer to some commotions in Etruria, while Caesar 
was carrying on the war against Sex. Pompeius in Sicily ; but 
perhaps it only means civil commotions in general. — impius, 
cruel, a usual sense of the word: see on Ec. i. 71. — 512. Ut 
cum, etc. He illustrates this breaking loose, as it were, of the 
whole world by a simile taken from the chariot-races of the 



206 GEORGICS. 

Circus. — 512. career ibus, the barriers, behind which the cha- 
riots stood ready to start as soon as they were let fall. The 
horses in the races during the Carnival at Rome at the present 
day are started in much the same manner. — Addunt in spatia. 
Addunt, ' they give themselves to.' Sese is to be repeated from 
the preceding line. The seven circuits of the Circus which 
the chariots were to make were termed spatia. Agitatorum 
laetitia cum septimo spatio palmae adpropinquant, Sen. Ep. 
30, 11. The meaning therefore would seem to be, ' they rush 
along the prescribed course, increasing in speed as they go.' 
There is a variety of readings here, such as in spatio, se in 
spatia. — retinacula, i. e. habeuas. — audit, obeys. To hear, for 
to obey, is found in many languages, in the Hebrew for ex- 
ample. Equifrenato est auris in ore, says Horace (Ep. i. 15, 
13), when describing a restive horse. — currus, i. e. equi : Cf. 
iii. 91. 



BOOK II. 



Argument. 



Proposition and invocation, 1-8. Natural origin of trees, 
9-12. Artificial modes of producing them, 22-34. Call to 
the husbandmen and to Maecenas, 35-46. Remarks on na- 
tural trees, 47-60. Modes of propagating trees, 61-72. In- 
oculation and grafting, 73-82. Various kinds of trees, par- 
ticularly vines, 83-108. Different soils and regions suited to 
different trees, 109-135. Praises of Italy, 136-176. Various 
kinds of soils, 177-235. Modes of ascertaining the quality of 
the soil, 236-258. Mode of preparing a vineyard, 259-272. 
Mode of planting the vines, 273-287. Depth at which trees 
should be planted, 288-297. Miscellaneous precepts on plant- 
ing, 288-314. Time of planting; eulogy of the Spring, 315- 
345. Further directions about planting, 346-353. Care of 



book ir. 1-6. 207 

the young vines, 354-370. Protection of the vines. Festival 
of Bacchus, 371-396. Culture of the vineyard, 397-419. 
Culture of the olive, 420-425. Culture and uses of other 
trees, 426-456. Advantages and praises of a country life, 
456 to the end. 

Notes. 

1-8. The proposition, with the invocation of Bacchus. — 
Hactenus, sc. cecini. — Bacche, i. e. the culture of the vine, 
over which Bacchus presided. We are perfectly aware (see 
Mythology, p. 217) that the domain of this god extended 
beyond the vineyard ; but we think that Virgil in this place 
limited him to it. — silvestria virgulta, the woodland plants, 
such as forest-trees. — prolem, the offspring ; perhaps because 
he intends to treat of the propagation of the olive. — tarde 
crescentis, slow-growing ; for such the olive really is, particu- 
larly when raised from seed. Hesiod, as Pliny tells us (xv.l), 
said that he that planted an olive rarely lived to gather its 
fruit ; but this is an exaggeration. — Hue, sc. veni ; from v. 7. 
The poet conceives himself to be in a region abounding in 
vines, and where the operations of the vintage are going on. 
— pater: see on i. 121. The notes of the commentators here 
and elsewhere show how little they understood the meaning 
of pater in the Roman theology. — 4. Lenaee. The Greeks 
gave this god the epithet of \r\valos, from Xtjvos, torcular, 
the vinepress, or vat in which they trod the grapes. — tibi, 
for thee. — pampineo auctumno, with the viny autumn, i. e. 
with the grapes which autumn is yielding. — gravidus, like 
proles, v. 3 ; the metaphor being taken from the production 
of mankind. The final us is long, though before a vowel, as 
being in arsis. — 6. Floret, blooms, in allusion to the various 
hues of the grapes and other fruits. — vindemia, the vintage, 
i. e. the expressed juice of the grapes. — plenis labris, in the 
full vessels. The labra were the vessels which received the 
liquor as it ran from the wine- or olive-press: see Cato 10; 
Colum. xii. 50, 10, 11. — nudata, etc. The poet, in his enthu- 
siasm, represents himself and the god as entering the wine- 
press together and treading out the grapes. In the East (see 



208 GEORGICS. 

Isaiah, lxiii. 1-3), and in Greece and Italy, the grapes were 
trodden out by men with bare feet. In the Geoponics (vi.ll.) 
very minute directions are given about their keeping their feet 
clean. The practice still prevails in many parts of the south 
of Europe. — S. dereptis. This emendation of Heinsius, for 
which he had the support of a few MSS., has been received 
by Heyne, Wagner and Forbiger. Voss and Jahn retain the 
common reading, direptis : the latter has a note of five pages 
on the subject. — cotlmmis. Bacchus was usually represented 
wearing the cothurni or hunting-buskins. 

9-21. Some trees are produced by nature alone, others by 
the aid of human art. — Principio, to begin. — Nature. Here, 
as in v. 20, we would suppose a personification of nature. 
Heyne gives the sense thus: "arborum nascentium natura, 
ratio, est raria." — nirflis, etc. The gen. of homo is here used 
instead of the abl. Thus Tacitus (Germ. 43), nullo hostium 
sttstinente. — Sponte sua, avro/id-ws. This is opposed to what 
follows of trees produced by large seeds ; those of the plants 
here enumerated being small and hardly visible : see Varro, 
R. R. i. 40. — compos, etc., i. e. they grow on the plains and 
on the banks of rivers. — molle, flexible ; equivalent to the fol- 
lowing lentae. — glauca, etc. : descriptive of the pale green of 
the leaves of the sallow. For all these plants, see the Flora. 
— salicta, i. e. saliceta, for salices. — 14?. posiio, i. q. deposito, i. e. 
deciso, fallen. For this sense of ponere, see vv. 403, 521. — 
nemorum, of trees ; like silvarum, v. 26. — Jovi, for Jupiter, 
that is, sacred to him. — habitae oracida, held to be oracles, sc. 
at Dodona. For these trees also, see the Flora. — 17. Pullulat, 
etc., ' a dense crop of suckers grows up.' This is the case 
when, as in the trees here mentioned, the roots instead of 
going down run along the ground near the surface. These 
are of course the most injurious to the soil, and nothing there- 
fore can be worse than the planting thick hedge-rows of elms, 
as is done in many parts of England. Cato (51) calls suckers 
pidli, and Pliny (xvii. 10) pidluli, likening them to the young 
of animals. — Parnasia laurus, the Parnasian bay, either as 
sacred to Apollo, or because, as Pliny says (xv. 30), it attains 
to great perfection on Mount Parnasus. — se subjicit : see Ec. 



book ii. 8-31. 209 

x. 74*. — 20. Hos Natura, etc., ' these (viz. sponte, by seed, by 
suckers) are the ways given by Nature,' i. e. the natural ones. 
In these ways the shrubs and the forest-trees propagate them- 
selves and flourish. 

22-34-. The artificial modes of propagation. For these, see 
Terms of Husbandry. — Sunt alii, sc. modi, v. 20. — usus, ex- 
perience: cf. i. 133. — via, on its way, as it advanced. — Hie 
planlas, etc., propagation by planting out the suckers. — ab- 
scindens, i. q. avellens. Some MSS. read abscidens, but that 
would give quite an erroneous idea, for scidere is to cut with 
a knife, etc., and suckers are pulled up, while scindere is 
merely to separate anything forcibly. — tenero de corpore. 
Either the poet here, as elsewhere, takes the liberty of joining 
the adj. with the subst., to which it does not properly belong, 
or he means the root in opposition to the trunk, which was 
hardened by exposure to the air. — sulcis, the holes or trenches 
dug to receive them. — hie stirpes, etc. A second mode, that 
of planting pieces cut off the trees. It was chiefly the olive 
that was propagated in this manner. Stirpes, slides and valli 
all mean the same thing, the pieces cut from the parent 
stock. — Quadrifidas, cleft in four. — acnto robore, with its end 
pointed. — 26. Silvarum, etc. A third method, by layers. 
Silvae, trees : see v. 15. — plantaria, i. q.pla?itas. — sua terra, in 
their own soil, i. e. that in which the parent plant is growing. 
— 28. Nil radicis, etc. The fourth method, by cuttings. These, 
unlike the first and third kind, require no root. — putator, the 
pruner or gardener. It may be simply the person who makes 
the cuttings.- — referens, bringing home with him : see i. 275. 
Heyne takes referens mandare to be simply mandare. — sum- 
mum cacumen, a shoot taken from the upper part of the tree, 
i. e. its branches. There is probably an opposition intended 
to the suckers of v. 23. — 30. Quin et, etc. A fifth method, by 
planting merely cleft pieces of the trunk, as in the case of 
olives, myrtles, mulberries and others. — 3.1. Truditur, pushes 
itself, a mid. voice : it may however be taken passively. — e sicco 
ligno, from the dry wood. Pliny (xvi. 84) tells us that olive- 
wood wrought and made into hinges for doors has been known 
to sprout when left some time without being moved. Voss, 



210 



GEORGICS. 



by siccum lignum, would understand the trunk as opposed to 
the root and branches. — 32. Et saepe, etc. The sixth and last 
method, that of grafting. — impune, without detriment. — Ver- 
tere, sc. se. — mutatam, changing its nature. — prunis, etc. It 
is doubtful whether he means here that the cornel was grafted 
on the plum, or the plum on the cornel. Martyn, followed 
by Jahn and Forbiger, maintains the former; but to this it is 
objected, that our poet himself ( Aen. iii. 64-9) speaks with con- 
tempt of the cornel, which Homer (Od. v. 24-1 ) and Columella 
(x. 15) describe as only food for swine; and it is therefore 
hardly likely that the Romans, however capricious their taste 
might be, would go to the trouble of grafting it. The only 
objection to the other interpretation is, that coma would be 
used for cornos ; but, as Wunderlich observes, the poet a little 
further on (v. 426) uses poma for pomi. We adopt this in- 
terpretation. — lapidosa, as having a large stone. — rubescere. 
This term may be used in speaking of the purple plum, which 
is red before it ripens. 

35-46. Since then art can do so much, there is every in- 
ducement for country-gentlemen to pay their attention to the 
cultivation of trees. He calls on them in general, and on 
Maecenas in particular, to attend to his precepts. — generatim, 
according to their kinds. — terrae, the lands. — Juval, etc. Even 
mountains may be made productive. Ismarus in Thrace bears 
vines, and Taburnus in Samnium is famed for its olives. Ju- 
rat, it is profitable. — Ismarus : see Ec. vi. 30. — 39. decurre. 
The metaphor here is taken from navigation, and not from 
the chariot-races of the Circus. — laborem, course or task. — 
volans, running before the wind. Some MSS. read volens. — 
pelago (dat.), on the sea. — da vela, set sail, as Aen. ii. 136; 
not " fave canenti," as Heyne explains it. — 42. cuncta, the 
whole science of the planting and cultivation of trees. — opto, 
i. e. volo: cf. Aen. i. 76. — primi litoris, the first part (i. e. the 
edge) of the shore. The adj. seems properly to belong to 



V. 42. TlXtjdvv S' owk av eyw fivQ^aojiai, ovS' bvofiyvui' 

OvS' ei fioi Seica fiev yXwoaai, deica Se (TTOfiar elev, 

$u)vr} S' dpprjKros, %a\iceov de fioi rirop eveit], — Horn. IL ii. 488. 



book ii. 32-59. 211 

oram. This, by the way, hardly accords with the bold course 
intimated in v. 41. — In manibus terrae, 'the shore is at hand'; 
we shall run no risk. — carmine jicto, by a poem on a mythic 
subject, such as were then in vogue : see iii. 4. — -per ambages 
et longa exorsa. He thus designates the length of those poems 
and the involution of their plots. 

47-60. He treats here of the culture of the trees and plants 
above noticed as growing spontaneously. — in luminis oras. So 
the Medicean MS. reads, and the phrase is of frequent occur- 
rence in Ennius and Lucretius. The common reading is in 
luminis auras, which is every way inferior. In luminis oras is 
' into the confines of light,' and is most properly used of a child 
issuing from the womb, or a plant from the ground. — laeta, 
healthy: see on i. 1. — natura, natural power and energy.— 
subest, is under, is in. — Tamen, etc. 'these however may be 
improved and made to bear by grafting or by transplanting.' 
— mutata, removed. — subactis, well-dug, in which the earth is 
loosened and, as it were, subdued. — artis, uses, whether to 
bear or to yield foliage or timber. The former is effected by 
grafting, the latter by transplanting. — voces sequentur. Ani- 
mating as usual, he makes the trees hear the voice of their 
master and follow him whither he calls them. — 53. sterilis, sc. 
arbos, from v. 57. We have already had occasion to notice 
this practice of understanding with an adj. or pron. the subst. 
which follows at some distance. — stirpibus ab imis, from the 
ground about the bottom of the trunk. It is a sucker. — di- 
gesta, planted out. In this case the plants were set in regular 
order ; hence he says digesta. — altae. It is, we think, better 
to join this adj. with matris than -withfrondes. — Crescenti, etc. 
They prevent it from bearing as it grows, and when it does 
begin to bear they deprive its fruit of nourishment. By fetus 
perhaps he understands shoots and leaves. — urunt: see on i. 
77. — 57. Jam, etc. Trees, he says, which come from seed 
grow more slowly than those propagated in the other man- 
ners. He however exaggerates when he makes such a differ- 
ence. We may observe that he has changed the order from 
that in v. 10 seq., where these occupy the second place. — 59. 
Poma degenerant. This gardeners know to be true, and they 



212 



GEORGICS. 



therefore always graft. — 60. uva, i. e. vitis, according to Ser- 
vius ; but as the racemus is part of the uva (see Flora, v. Vitis), 
we think uva may be taken here in its natural sense. 

61-72. Scilicet, etc. 'In fact it results from all that we have 
said, that labour must be bestowed on all kinds of trees.' — 
Cogendae in sulcum, etc. This metaphorical language seems 
to be taken from the breaking-in of oxen to the plough or 
cart (see iii. 163 seq.); in sulcum being like in jugum. The 
sulcus was the trench in which the young trees were set at 
regular intervals. — multa mercede, with much expense, on ac- 
count of the wages paid to the workmen, or, what was the 
same thing, the support of the slaves. — 63. Sed, etc. Some 
however are propagated better in one way, some in another ; 
as, for example, olives answer (respondent) best from truncheons 
(v. 30), vines from layers (v. 26), myrtles from the solid wood 
(v. 30), the hazel, the ash, etc. from suckers. — Paphiae. The 
myrtle was so called as being sacred to Venus, who was wor- 
shiped at Paphos in Cyprus. — Herculeae, etc., the white pop- 
lar, with which it was said Hercules bound his brows when he 
descended to Erebus. Hence the under part of the leaf, as 
being next his head, is white, while the upper was made dark 
by the gloom of that region. — 67. Chaonii pcdris. Jupiter of 
Dodona in Chaonia : see Ec. ix. 13. Thus we have (Aen. 
viii. 55k) Lemnius pater for Vulcan : see on i. 121. — glandes, 
the fruit for the tree : see v. 60. — ardua. The palm is called 
tall, because it grows in one tall stem with all its foliage at 
the top. — Nascitur, sc.plantis. — et casus, etc. Because the fir 
was much used in ship-building. — 69. Inseritur, etc. The 
•walnut is grafted on the arbutus, the apple on the plane, the 
chestnut on the beech, the pear on the urnus, the oak on the 
elm. Modern naturalists however assert that these grafts are 
impossible, as it is only plants of the same family that can be 
grafted on each other. — liorrida, rough ; meant either of the 
rind or the berry. — nucis fetu, with a shoot of the walnut. 
The more usual expression would be, nux inseritur arbuto 
(dat.), but he adopts the less usual form, arbutus inseritur 
nuce (abl.). Most MSS. read et fetu nucis arbutus horrida, 
making a very disagreeable hypermetric verse ; but the pre- 



book ii. 60-83. 213 

sent one, arbutus horrida fetu, is the correction in the Medi- 
cean, and is to be found in other good MSS. — steriles. The 
plane bears no edible fruit. — Castcmeae, sc. fiore.—fagus, a 
nom. : the us is long as being in arsis, see on v. 5 ; or it may 
be a nom. plur. of the fourth declension.—; fregere, crunch. An 
aorist, like the preceding gessere and incanuit. 

73-82. A description of the processes named inoculation 
and grafting. — Nee modus, etc. Servius thus explains this 
place : " Non est simplex et fortuita ratio, sed ea quae ingenti 
labore colligitur." He gives a second interpretation : " Non 
est idem inserere quod et oculos imponere." Heyne, who is 
followed by Voss and others, says it is, i. q. sunt varii modi, 
referring to iii. 482, where however simplex, as we shall show, 
has not this sense. We think the second interpretation of 
Servius is the true one, for the proper signification of simplex 
is one, single: see Lucr. v. 613, 619. Simplex quae ex argu- 
mento facta est duplici, Ter. Heaut. Pr. 6 ; Dejecit acer plus 
vice simplici, Hor. Civ. 14, 13. For the form modus inserere, 
see on i. 305. — Nam, for inoculation is performed in this man- 
ner : in the nodus, or part of the bark where the bud breaks 
out, a narrow slit is made, and a bud from another rree is in- 
serted in it, and the whole is bound up. — medio de cortice, from 
the midst of the bark. — tunicas, the liber or interior bark. — 
udo, moist, as that is the most juicy part of the bark. — ino- 
lescere, to coalesce or grow into it. — 78. Aut rursum, or again. 
He thus passes to the grafting. — enodes trunci. By truncus 
was understood either the trunk itself or a thick bough. 
Enodes, smooth, or free from knots. — alte, etc. It was to be 
split at the end, and kept open with a wedge until the shoot 
taken from another tree was put into it : the wedge was then 
withdrawn, and it was let to close on it. — resecantur, are cut 
off at their upper end. — in solidum, sc. lignum.— feraces, fruit- 
ful, from a bearing tree. — Exiit ad caelum, grows up into the 
air. Exiit, aovisL—felicibus, i. q.feracibus. — miratur, sc. the 
tree on which the graft has been made. — non sua : see on Ec. 
i. 38. See Terms of Husbandry, w. Inoculatio, Insertio. 

83-108. There are great varieties in every species of plant, 
as for example in the elm, the willow, the lotus, and the cy- 



214- GEORGICS. 

press. — 84-. que, i. q. ve : see on i. 75. — Idaeis, Idaean ; from 
Mount Ida in Crete, whence the cypress was said to have been 
brought into Italy. — cyparissis. The Greek form Kvirdpiaeos, 
instead of the Latin cupressus : see Aen. iii. 680. — pingues, 
unctuous. — Orchades. There are, for example, the three fol- 
lowing kinds. — Pomaque, etc. This is a hendyadis for poma 
Alcinoi silvarum. Que, i. q. ve, as in v. 84. — silvae, i. q. ar- 
bores : see v. 26. The garden, or rather orchard, of Alcinous 
king of the Phaeacians is described in the Odyssey, vii. 112 
seq. — surcuhts, a shoot, used for any part of the tree, or even 
for the tree itself. — Crustumiis, so called from the Crustumine 

region, on the other side of the Anio from Rome volemis, 

so named from their size, it is said, as they would fill the vola 
or hollow of the hand. — 89. Non eadem, etc. He now enu- 
merates a great number of the varieties of the vine. The 
reader must be aware that it is utterly impossible to identify 
them with the different kinds now cultivated in wine-growing 
countries. — vindemia, i. q. uva. — nostris, our, the Italian vines. 
— Lesbos. This island, of which Methymna was one of the 
principal towns, was famous for its vines. — TJiasiae, from the 
isle of Thasos on the coast of Thrace- — Mareotides, from the 
borders of lake Mareotis, near Alexandria in Egypt. These 
grapes were green (albae). — hae, the former ; illae, the latter : 
see Zumpt, § 700. — habiles, adapted to. — passo, sc. vino, 
raisin-Avine : see Colum. xii. 39 ; Plin. xiv. 9, 14. — tenuis, 
small. Servius renders it " penetrabilis, cujus vinum cito de- 
scendit ad venas." Others say it is thin, meaning the juice. — 
94. Tentatura, etc., i.e. make people drunk, of which staggering 
and stammering are consequences. — purpureae, purple grapes. 
— preciae, i. q. praecoquae, according to Servius, grapes that 
ripened early. — Rhaetica, sc. vitis. Rhaetia was a region of 
the Alps, the Tyrol, but it was considered to extend into Cis- 
alpine Gaul, and it was in the neighbourhood of Verona that 
the grapes grew which the poet here praises : see Pliny, xiv. 
6, who informs us that the younger Caesar was fond of them : 
hence perhaps Virgil's praise ; for Catullus, who was a native 
of Verona, spoke very disparagingly of them according to 
Servius. — Falernis. The wine of the Falernian district, in Cam- 



book ii. 84-107- 215 

pania, enjoyed the highest reputation in ancient times : the 
wines grown there now have no great character. — 97« Ami- 
naeae. These vines, Philargyrius tells us from Aristotle, were 
transplanted by the Aminaeans from Thessaly to Italy, viz. to 
Salernum on the gulf of Paestum, as would appear from Ma- 
crobius, ii. 16.—Jirmissima, very strong. Plin. xiv. 2. — Tmo- 
lius, sc. mons. Mount Traolus in Lydia, celebrated for its 
vines. — rex ipse Phanaeus. This was a promontory of the 
isle of Chios which produced the celebrated Ariusian wine 
(see Ec. v. 71), and which he therefore entitles the king of 
vine-bearing hills, as he calls the Eridanus the king of rivers, 
i. 482. — adsurgit, rises up to the Aminaean vine, out of re- 
spect, as people do at the approach of a superior. — Argitisque 
minor. This vine, of which there were two kinds, a major and 
a minor (so named from the size of the grapes), is said to de- 
rive its name from upyos, white. — cui non, etc. No other will 
yield so much wine, and the wine of no other will keep so 
many years. — dis et mensis secundis. Grateful to the gods as 
poured out in libations to them, and used by the wealthy in 
the second courses at their entertainments. Thus Horace 
(C. iii. 11,6) calls the lyre divitum mensis et arnica templis. 
It is probably in a similar sense that it is said of wine in the 
book of Judges (ix. 13), that it " clieereth God and man." — 
Bumaste, fiovftaoros, large-breasted, from its size ; also named 
bumamma and duracina. — 103. Sed neque, etc. Dr. Fee (Note 
sur Pline, xiv. 4) remarks that Cato had noticed fifty-eight 
kinds of vines, Pliny about eighty ; while in modern times a 
Spanish naturalist has described a hundred and twenty varie- 
ties in the single province of Andalusia, M. Audibert in his 
nurseries near Tarrascon had two hundred and seventy kinds, 
and M. Bosc had collected fourteen hundred in the garden of 
the Luxembourg, and was of opinion that it is not more than 
the half of those cultivated in France alone. — Est numerus, ' is 
there a number,' that is, can they be numbered.- — refert, need 
we, is it necessary. — Libyci aequoris, the sandy plain or desert 
of Libya. — 107. Aut ubi, etc. Or when the east-wind blows, 
how many waves of the Ionian sea come to the shores of Italy 
and Sicily. — violentior, more violent than usual. 



216 GEORGICS. 

109-135. Every tree is not equally well-adapted to every 
kind of soil. Sallows grow best on the banks of streams, 
alders in marshes, the ornus on mountains, myrtles on the 
sea-shore, vines on open sunny hills, yews in a northern 
aspect. — Fluminibus : see on Ec. vii. 66. — steriles : see on v. 70. 
— 112. Litora, etc. The adj. here properly belongs to myrtetis. 
— apertos, i. q. apricos. — Bacchus, i. e. vitis. — Aquilonem, etc. 
A hendyadis. — 114. extremis domitum, etc. A poetic mode of 
expressing the most distant regions of the earth in which men 
were to be found. In his usual manner he gives two exam- 
ples, viz. the Arabs and the Gelonians. — pictos Gelorws (like 
picti Agathyrsi, Aen. iv. 146), the tattooed Gelonians. Mem- 
braque quiferro gaudet pinxisse Gelonus, Claud, in 11 uf. i. 313. 
The operation which Claudian here very exactly indicates is 
well known, and is in great use among the islanders of the 
south seas. The Gelonians were a nomadic people of the 
modern Ukraine. — arboribus, a dat. 

116. Sola India, etc. See the Flora for all the plants here 
mentioned. — turea virga, the Thus. — sudantia balsama. "Ex- 
sudat arbor balsamum, aut illud desudat de arbore." Heyne. 
Sudantia, simp, for comp. — baccas, the pods. The word 
bacca was used in a general way to express the fruit of any 
kind of tree. — molli lana, with the soft cotton. See the Flora, 
v. Lana Aethiopum. — Velleraque, etc. It was the general belief 
in Virgil's time that the silk which was brought to Europe 
from the East grew on the leaves of trees in the country of the 
Seres, a people whose abode was supposed to lie between India 
and Scythia : see the Flora, v. Vellera Serum. — quos lucos, 
what lofty trees. — propior, nearer (sc. than Serica) to the 
ocean. The ancients held that the whole earth was encom- 
passed by the Ocean : see on Ec. i. 66. — Extremi sinus orbis. 
He calls India so, as forming the extreme bend or curvature 
of the oblong habitable earth (olicovf.ievr}) at the ocean in the 
East. Horace, speaking of the opposite end, says (Epod. 1.13), 
Vel occidentis usque ad ultimum sinum. See Tac. Ann. iv. 5 ; 
Germ. 29 ; Plin. vi. 8, 8. — aera summum, the topmost air, i. e. 
the air at the top of the tree, i. e. the top of the tree in the 
air. Arrows, when shot (jactu), cannot go over those trees 



book ii. 109-136. 217 

they are so lofty. This however is an exaggeration ; there are 
no trees of such altitude in India. — 125. Et gens ilia, etc., ' and 
yet that people are not inexpert (i. e. they are very expert) in 
the use of the bow.' The Indians were regarded by the an- 
cients as very superior archers : those in the army of Xerxes 
were all bowmen, armed with bows and arrows of cane. Herod, 
vii. 65. — 126. tristes, bitter, or acid. — tardurn, lasting, that re- 
mains a long time on the tongue and palate. — Felicis mali, 
the citron : see the Flora, v. Malum Medicum : he calls it felix 
on account of its salubrious qualities. — praesentius, more 
ready, more efficacious : see on Ec. i. 42. — infecere, have in- 
fected, have poisoned. — novercae. It was very common in 
those times for a second wife to remove by poison the chil- 
dren of her husband by his former marriage, in order that the 
whole property might go to her own children. Stepmothers 
have been in ill-odour in all ages of the world. — Miscuerunt, 
etc. This verse is evidently an interpolation from iii. 282, 
where it is in its proper place, while here it is quite needless, 
the sense being perfect without it: see on Ec. i. 17. It is 
not in the text of the Med. MS., but at the bottom of the 
page. — agit, i. q. abagit, drives away. — 131. ingens, large, re- 
ferring perhaps rather to the spreading of its branches than 
to its height. — -faciem, etc. ' in appearance extremely like the 
bay, and, were it not that its odour is quite different, it would 
be a bay.' The smell of the citron is in its flower, not its 
leaves. — -folia, etc. It is an evergreen. — ad prima, extremely; 
like in primis, cum primis, apprime. — tenax, tenacious, per- 
sisting. — animas, etc. A hendyadis for animas olentium orium 
or olentes animas orium. Olentia is male olentia : see on i. 27- 
— -fovent, OepanevovGi, cura?it, the same as the following verb, 
but used to vary the phrase. — senibus anhelis (dat.), their 
asthmatic old men. 

136-176. A digression containing the praises of Italy: he 
took the idea probably from Varro, R. R. i. 2. — silvae, i.e. 
arbores, sc. the citron-trees. — ditissima terra. The idea of 
the country Media is included in the preceding name of the 
people Medorum. The wealth of the East was proverbial, 
but he may have had in view only the citrons. — Ganges. 

L 



218 GEORGICS. 

India, of which the Ganges is the principal river. — 137. atque, 
i. q. out: see on i. 75. — Hermus, Lydia, in which the Hermus 
rolls its golden sands. — Laudibus, merits, as deserving praise ; a 
common meaning of this word: see Aen. i. 461. — Bactra, 
the capital of Bactria, put for the country. Bactria was the 
northern part of the Persian empire : it is now called Kho- 
rassan. — Totaque, etc.. 'or (que i. q. ve) all Panchaia, rich 
in incense-bearing soil : ' see on i. 70. For the fabulous isle 
of Panchaia, see Mythology, p. 22. Virgil seems here to 
mean Arabia Felix. — 140. Haec loca, etc. This country is 
not like Colchis, where Jason yoked the fire-breathing oxen 
of Aeetes and sowed the serpent's teeth, whence rose a crop of 
armed men : see Mythology, p. 4-72. — satis dentibus. Perhaps a 
dat., for Jason ploughed before he sowed : see Ap. Ith. iii. 
1336. — virion seges, a crop of men. — horruit, bristled up: see 
on i. 151. It is in his lueis, not haec loco, that we are to 
supply after horruit. — gravidas frvgcs, heavy corn, and there- 
fore rich and good: see on i. 319.— Massicus humor, the 
Massic juice. The wine of the Massic hills in Campania was 
in great repute. — oleae. The ae is not elided, as being in arsis. 
— laeta armenta, large and stately herds of oxen. According 
to the historian Timaeus, Italy derived its name from 'iraXos 
(vitulus), an ox, on account of its superior oxen. — 145. Hinc. 
The use of this term here and in the next verse would seem 
to be inferential from the rich pastures understood in the pre- 
ceding armenta laeta. — bellator equus, the war-horse. Sub- 
stantives in tor and trix were probably adjectives in their 
origin : hence they are joined with other substantives : see 
Zumpt, § 102. — sese infert, advances, as if against an enemy,. 
— albi greges. The oxen of that part of Umbria through 
which the Clitumnus flows were (and still in a great measure 
are) white ; a quality which the ancients, in their usual in- 
exact way, ascribed to the waters of that stream : see Pliny, 
ii. 103, 106. — et. This particle here, as often elsewhere in 
our poet, has the sense of especially, what follows being really 
contained in what precedes. — maxima victima. As being the 
largest victim offered, or as being offered on the occasion of 
a triumph. — perfusi. Alluding probably to the notion of their 



book ii. 137-158. 219 

colour being produced by the water of the stream. — 147. sacro. 
The god Clitumnus had a temple at the head of the stream. 
Plin. Ep. viii. 8. — ad templet, to the Capitol. — daxere, because 
the victims were led before the triumphal car : see on i. 217. 
— ver assiduum, etc., ' constant spring and summer in months 
not its own,' i. e. the climate of Italy is so mild that the year 
seems to consist only of spring and summer. — Bis gravidae. 
The sheep yean twice in the year : see Colum. vii. 2. — bis 
pomis, etc. The fruit-trees also bear twice a-year. Varro, 
from whom Virgil probably took this circumstance, says (R. 
E.. i. 7), that in the district of Consentia, in Bruttium, the 
apple-trees bore twice. — utilis, useful for, i. e. productive of : 
see v. 323. — 151. semina, yevr], the race. Lucretius as 
(iii. 741) triste leonum Seminium, which Virgil had no doubt 
in view. — nee miseros, etc. 'nor does the poisonous aconite 
deceive the unhappy gatherers of herbs or plants,' i. e. they do 
not, when collecting plants for food, by mistake gather aconite 
and thus poison themselves ; whence he calls them unhappy 
from the effect. The poet either uses here aconita as a general 
term for poisonous plants, or else he shows his ignorance of bo- 
tany ; for Dioscorides says expressly (iv. 78), that the aconite 
(Wolfsbane) grew abundantly in Italy in the Vestinian moun- 
tains of the Apennines. Servius also says it was to be found in 
Italy. — Nee rapit, etc., 'nor are the serpents of Italy of the great 
magnitude that they are elsewhere,' ex. gr. in Asia and Africa. 
— rapit. On account of their quick motion.— tanto tractn, in so 
great a space. — in spiram, i. e. in orbem. Cf. Aen. ii. 217. 

155. Adde, etc. To those blessings of nature already enu- 
merated add the works of man and the men themselves. — 
urbis. Aelian (V. H. ix. 16) says that there were 1197 towns 
in Italy ; but it is only of the greater ones, as Rome, Naples, 
Mantua, etc. that Virgil speaks here, and of which there were 
more in Italy than anywhere else. — operum laborem, the labour 
of the workmen employed in raising them. — congesta mami, 
etc., piled by the hand of man on steep rocks. This was the 
site of many of the ancient Italian towns.-^-JFlumina, etc., the 
ancienttownsbuilt on the banks of streams. — 158. An mare,etc. 
The Mare Superum or Adriatic, the Mare Inferum or Tyr- 

l2 



220 GEORGICS. 

rhene sea. — 159. lacus tantos, etc., such large lakes, as for ex- 
ample the Larius,or Lago di Como ; and the Benacus, or Lago 
di Garda. The former is near Milan, the latter near Verona. 
— Fluctibus et fremiti/, marino. The adj. is to be understood 
with the first subst. also. Marinus, like the sea. — 161. portus. 
The Portus Julius in the bay of Baise, made by repairing the 
breaches which the sea had made in the belt of land between 
the sea and the Lucrine lake (which tradition said Hercules 
had formed for a passage for the oxen of Geryon), leaving an 
entrance for ships into the lake, and cutting a passage from it 
into lake Avernus : see Strabo, v. p. 244 ; Hist, of Rome, 
p. 470. — claustra, mound or dyke, by strengthening the belt 
of land between it and the sea. — indignatum, expressing its 
indignation at being excluded. — Julia qua, etc. The meaning 
of this seems to be, that the sea rushed against and was flung 
back by the dyke, and that the sound was heard all over the 
new- formed port. — Tyrrhenus, etc. On account of the pas- 
sage made into lake Avernus.— -fretis (dat.), i. e. lacu. — Haec 
eadem, etc. This happy land also abounds in mines of the 
more valuable metals. — rivos, streams, i. e. abundance. — me- 
tulla, mines. — plurima jftuxit, abounds in. The quantity of 
copper that Italy produced is well known ; the gold and silver 
mines were only matter of conjecture. Pliny tells us (iii. 20.) 
that the Senate forbade the working of mines in Italy, perhaps 
to prevent people from wasting their fortunes in mining spe- 
culations. — 167. genus acre, a bold and hardy race. For the 
peoples and warriors here enumerated, see the Hist, of Rome. 
Adsuetum malo, as living among barren mountains. — verutos, 
armed with the veru, a kind of spear : see Aen. vii. 665 — 
Scipiadas. The elder Scipio Africanus, whom Lucilius, and 
after him Lucretius and Horace, thus named. Here, as in 
the two preceding names, though the plural is used, only one 
person is meant. — duros hello, Heyne says, is " induratos ad 
bellum." We rather think it is a variation of the belli fulmen 
of Lucretius. With respect to the preceding note, we must 
observe, that when our poet uses the very words of Lucretius 
(Aen. vi. 842), he speaks of the two Scipios. — Qui nunc ex- 
tremis, etc. This must have been inserted in the poem A. U. 



book ii. 159-184. 221 

724-6, when Caesar, after the death of Antonius, remained in 
Asia, regulating the foreign relations of the state : see Hist. 
of Rom. Empire, p. 3. — oris. The frontiers of a country, in 
the Latin poets, are often put for the country itself. In the 
exaggeration of flattery, the poet represents Caesar as having 
penetrated even to India, the eastern limit of Asia: see v. 122. 
— Imbellem Indum, like molles Sabaei, i. 51. The epithet 
seems very ill-chosen in this place. — Romanis arcibus, i. e. 
from Rome itself, built on the seven hills : see Aen. iv. 234. 
— 173. Saturnia tellus: see on Ec. iv. 6. — tibi, for thee, for 
thy benefit. — res antiqica, etc., sc. agriculture, which had been 
practised and held in honour from the most ancient times. — 
sanctos, which had hitherto been regarded with a kind of 
religious awe and which none dared to approach. — Ascraeum 
carmen, a poem on agriculture, of which Hesiod of Ascra 
gave the first example. 

177-194. The various kinds of soil and their uses. — Nunc. 
This is the proper place for treating of soils, their strength, 
their colour, and their natural qualities of production. — Diffi- 
ciles. It is not easy to ascertain the exact meaning of this 
word here : it is the opposite of faciles, which the critics 
say is i. q.fertiles, in which case it hardly differs from the 
following maligni. This is however the best interpretation, 
for it does not appear to mean ' hard to work.' — maligni, 
stingy, grudging. Cf. Aen. vi. 270; Hor. S. i. 5, 4. — Tenuis 
argilla, meagre, unproductive marl: Colum.DeArb.17; Pallad. 
iii. 18. — calculus, i.q.glarea, gravel. — dumosis amis, in the 
bushy soil, i. e. the hills overgrown with bushes, which must 
be cleared away. — Palladia, as sacred to the goddess Pallas- 
Athene. — vivacis, as the olive is remarkably long-lived. — 
oleaster, the wild olive. — Plurimus : see on Ec. vii. 60. — 
baccis, i.e. those of the oleaster. — 184. At quae, etc. Such 
land as has been just described is adapted for olives, but if 
you want to cultivate the vine, the following is the kind of 
land you must look for. — pinguis humus, a rich soil. — dulci 
uligine, with a natural moisture of sweet water. Uligo, Ser- 
vius says, is " terrae humor naturalis, ex ea nunquam rece- 
dens." — ubere. Uber is properly ovdap, udder, and hence 



222 GEORGICS. 

fertility ; the ground yielding its products in abundance, as the 
udder does milk. — 185. campus, i. e. terra, land. — Qualem .... 
limum : a parenthesis. — cava montis convalle. In order that 
the epithet cur a may not appear idle, we must recollect that 
the poet conceives himself on the summit of the hills enclosing 
the valley, whence the idea of the hollowness is what strikes 
one most forcibly. — Dcspicere, to look down on ; not dispicere, 
to look about for, as Heyne reads, following Heinsius, and 
a few MSS. — hue, not quo ; for the poet conceives himself 
and the reader to be looking at it. The land of which he 
speaks may be as well on the side of the hill as in the bottom 
of the valley. — Fclicem, fertilising. — 188. quique editus austro, 
sc. campus, from v. 185. This is perhaps only a continuation 
of the description of the land given in the preceding verses, 
or it is that of the elevated land suited to the vine. It should 
face the south. This Mas the opinion of Saserna and of Tre- 
mellius Scrofa: see Colum. iii. 12; but the aspect depended 
on local circumstances.— -Jilicem, the fern. He says the 
ploughs dislike it because its long roots impede them. — Hie 
tibi, etc., ' this soil will produce you strong healthy vines, 
abounding in juicy bunches; this will yield abundance of 
clusters of grapes and wine fit to be used at the festivals of 
the gods.' The poet uses every expression he can find to 
sound the praises of superior vineyards. — pateris et auro : a 
hendyadis. — Injlavit: aorist. At Rome a flute-player always 
performed at the offering of a sacrifice : see Liv. ix. 30. Ov. 
Fast. vi. 653, seq. The flute-players were, it would appear, 
mostly from Etruria. — pinguis. Ant pastus Umber aut obesus 
Etruscus, Catull. xxxix. 11. Servius thinks the epithet is to 
be restricted to the flute-player, as fattened with good-living 
at the altar. — ebur, the flute, either made of, or adorned with, 
ivory. — pandis, curved, hollow.— fumantia, as being just taken 
out of the victim ; or, as Servius says, boiled. — reddimus. 
The sacrificial term, because we, as it were, pay the gods a 
debt, or give them back what is their own. 

195-202. Good pasture-lands.— armenta vitulosque. This 
is either a hendyadis, or que is, especially: see on v. 146. — 
studium,sc. est tibi, you wish, — tueri,to keep —fetus avium, i. q. 



book ii. 185-211. 223 

oves. — 196. urentisculta : see i. 77. The ancients had an erro- 
neous notion that there was something poisonous to a plant in 
the saliva of the goat : see Varro, R. R. i. 2, 18, 19. — culta, the 
cultivated trees, viz. vines and olives. — Saltus, etc. 'In that 
case you must repair to the wooded vales, and the rich fields of 
Tarentum, or the well-watered plain of Mantua.' — saiuri, i. q. 
saturati, saturated as it were with fertility and abundance. 
Cf. iii. 214. JRus saturum, Pers. i. 71. Satur Auctumnus, 
Colum. x. 43. locos ob humidam caeli naturam saturos et 
redundantes, Sen. Q. N. v. 9. For the fertility of Tarentum, 
see iv. 126 ; Hor. C. ii. 6. — longinqua, sc. arva, far away from 
Rome. — Et qualem, etc. : see on Ec. vii. 1 2 . — 200. Non liquidi y 
etc. ' In those districts your cattle will want for neither water 
nor grass.' — -fontes, i. e. aqua. — deerunt, a spondee by synizesis. 
— Et. The particle seems here to take the place of nam. — 
quantum, etc. 'As much as the cattle eat in the long days of 
summer, the dew will replace in the short nights of that 
season.' There is exaggeration in this of course ; Varro how- 
ever says (R. R. i. 7), Caesar Vopiscus aedilicius, causam 
cum ageret apud censores, campos Roseae [ad lacum Velinum] 
Italiae dixit esse sumen, in quo relicta pertica postridie non 
appareret propter herbam. The pole of course was left lying 
on the ground, not standing in it. 

202-216. Land fit for corn, and the reverse. — Nigra et 
pinguis. ' The soil that, as you plough it, turns up dark and 
rich, and that is loose and crumbly, is the best adapted for 
corn.' Nigra, the pidla of Cato and Columella. This is the 
colour of the land in Campania, and indicates the presence of 
decayed animal and vegetable matter. — imitamur arando. The 
object of ploughing is to loosen the soil, so that the atmospheric 
air may get to the roots of the plants. — aeqitore, i. q. campo, 
terra : see on i. 50. — domum decedere, to go home. — 207. Aut t 
etc. Another kind of good corn-land is that from which timber 
has been cleared away. — iratus, angry at its occupying so much 
good land. — devexit, as he supposes the land to lie somewhat 
high. — arator, the tillage-farmer. There is a hysteron-proteron 
here, as evertit and eruit signify acts that must precede that ex- 
pressed by devexit. — 208. ignava. The cause of the farmer's 



224? GEORGICS. 

anger; v. 290 merely varies v. 208 211. rudis campus, the 

rough (i.e. hitherto uncultivated) ground. — enituit, looks fresh. 
The verb niteo and its derivatives are frequently used of corn 
and corn-land. All the verbs used here, it will be observed, are 
aorists. — 212. Nam, etc. The connexion here is : ' This is the 
proper soil for corn, for others are bad ;' and then, in his usual 
manner, he gives instances of the worst kind of soils. — -jejuna, 
etc., ' the hungry gravel of a hilly region,' i. e. hills composed 
of gravel. — rorcm, sc. mariimm, rosemary : so it is properly 
explained by Servius. Heyne however renders it dew, or the 
flowers on which the dew lies ; because, he says, he has no- 
where met with ros by itself signifying rosemary. Voss how- 
ever quotes from Pliny (xxiv. 11, 60) Haec quae ex Rore 
supra dicto nascitur; and its being joined with castas leads us 
to expect a plant. — Et tophus, etc. ' And the rugged tufa and 
the marl eaten by black snakes assert that no lands yield such 
good food and shelter to serpents as themselves.' Here, as so 
often elsewhere, the poet gives life and reason to inanimate ob- 
jects. — tophus, tufa Vttoides, a volcanic product which abounds 
in the hills on which Rome was built: see Hist, of Rome, 
p. 488. — chelydris. The chelydrus (from ^eXvs and vSpa) was 
a kind of snake whose scales were hard like those of the tor- 
toise. — exesa creta. Greta here is i. q. argilla, potters' clay. 
The poet certainly means to say that the serpents ate it, and 
this seems to have been a prevalent opinion. The author of 
the Geoponics, when recommending to put argilla in the wines 
as a means of improving their flavour (vii. 12), adds, eart yap 
yXvtcela. rd yovv rw ^eijuwci avr>)i' (TiTovy-eva ciayiverai, i. e. 
serpents, scorpions, etc. See Bochart, Hieroz. i. 4. Silius 
Italicus (xvii. 449) describes a serpent as ferventi pastus arena. 
— alios agros. It appears to us, that by tophus and creta the 
poet meant to describe two different kinds of soil which agreed 
in harbouring serpents, and which differed in toto from the 
gravelly soil which yielded food to the bees. 

217-225. The best kind of land, equally adapted to all pur- 
poses. — nebulamfumosque, the light mist which the heat of the 
atmosphere draws up from lands which contain moisture ; it 
is, we are told, particularly to be observed in the district of 



book ii. 212-226. 225 

which the poet is about to speak. — 218. Et bibit, etc. ' it draws 
the moisture from the atmosphere at one time, and sends it back 
to it at another.' — vult. There is a personification as usual. — 
Quaeque sno, etc. ' and which, ever green, clothes itself with 
its own grass,' i. e. which is always covered with natural grass, 
an undoubted sign of a good soil. With Voss, Bothe, Wagner 
and Forbiger, we adopt the emendation of Faber, who, for the 
reading of the MSS. viridi, gave viridis, as more Virgilian, 
supposing the s to have been dropt by a copyist on account of 
the following se. This emendation is confirmed by one MS. 
The common reading is viridi semper ; but the Medicean and 
the other good MSS. read semper viridi. Semper viridis is 
like the semper jiorens of Lucretius (i. 125), and the semper 
ndus of Horace (C. iii. 29, 6), and may be regarded as a com- 
pound, like our evergreen. — salsa. The ancients ascribed the 
rusting of the ploughshare and other implements to the saline 
quality of the soil, and we know that salt greatly aids the 
oxidation of iron. — intexet, will weave into, will, as it were, 
embroider the elms with vines. — oleo, in o\\.—facilem pecori, 
adapted for cattle, yielding them abundance of food, i.e. good 
grazing-land. He then adds, that it is good tillage-land ; and 
he had just said that it was adapted to vines and olives. — 
224. Talem, etc. He now tells where this valuable land may be 
found, namely south of the Vulturnus in Campania. — Vesevo. 
He uses the form Vesevus for Vesuvius, in imitation of Lucre- 
tius (vi. 74<7). The great eruption of Vesuvius, the first on 
record, and which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, did 
not take place till more than a century after the writing of the 
Georgics, and the country about it was then one of the most 
charming in Italy. — Ora, the country. Gellius tells us (vii. 20) 
that the poet wrote originally Nola, but when the people of 
that town refused to let him turn the water on some land which 
he possessed in that neighbourhood, to punish them he changed 
Nola into ora.— 225. Clanius. This stream runs through Cam- 
pania and enters the sea at Linternum, where the great Scipio 
ended his days : it passes by the town of Acerrae, which it often 
injured by its inundations. The river is put for the people, as 
in i. 509 — vacuis, thinly peopled. Cicmae vacuae, Juv. iii. 2. 

L 5 



226 GEORGICS. 

226-237. Modes of ascertaining the nature of the soil. 
Whether dense or rare. — quamque, sc. terram ; from v. 203. — 
supra morem, i.q. supra modum, extremely. — Altera ....Lyaeo : 
a parenthesis. — 230. Ante locum, etc. 'you will mark out a 
spot with your eye.' — puteum, a hole, properly a well. — pedi- 
bus, etc. 'you will trample it down.' — arenas, the clay: see on 
i. 105. — Si deerunt, ' if the clay does not fill it up.' Deerunt : 
see on Ec. vii. 7. — uber, the land ; the idea of fertility being 
included : see on v. 185. — negabunt, sc. arenae personified. — 
scrobibus, i.e. scrobe (the puteus of v. 231), plur. for sing. — 
terya, i. c.porcas : see Terms of Husbandry. — proscinde, break, 
give it the first ploughing. 

238-247. Bitter, salt land. — perhibetur, is called : see i. 
247. — Frugibus....servat. We agree with Wakefield and Jahn 
in commencing the parenthesis atfrugibus, instead of at ea. — 
arando, by being ploughed (passive). — sua nomina, their own 
names, qualities ; i. e. they degenerate. — specimen, Zeiyfxa, 
proof, as in Lucretius iv. 209. — tu. The pers. pron. here gives 
force and calls the attention, as in Horace (S. i. 4, 85), Hunc 
tu JRomane caveto: cf. iii. 73, 163; iv. 45. — spisso vimine 
qualos, ' baskets with close rods,' i. e. closely-woven baskets. — 
colosque, and strainers, which were also of wicker-work. In 
this place probably que is i. q. ve, and the plur. is used for the 
sing. ; for one basket or one strainer would be quite enough. — • 
fumosis, etc. Baskets, etc., when not in use, were hung up in 
the kitchen of the farm-house. — 243. Hue. We might, as there 
is no verb of motion, have expected hie, but portentur is un- 
derstood : see on Ec. ii. 45. — ager ille malus, i. e. some of the 
clay of that land which is suspected to be bad. — dulces, etc., 
spring-water. — Ad plenum, Heyne says, is " plene, ut colum 
plenum sit." We rather think, with Forbiger, that it is " usque 
ad plenum, i. e. affatim, copiose," our to the full, perfectly. 
Cf. Hor. C. i. 17, 15. Ad plenum, fuerint eruditi, Veget. 
iii. 9. Scientiam ad plenum adeptus, Eutrop. viii. 10. — cal- 
centur, be trampled ; more probably be kneaded, as it might 
be done with the hands. — eluctabitur, will struggle out ; a very 
expressive term ! — Scilicet, forthwith. — At, etc. It is best in 
this verse to place the comma after faciei. — manifestus, etc. 



book ii. 226-259. 227 

' The manifest bitterness will, by the sensation, twist the writhing 
facesof those that taste it.' Manifestos is here perhaps i.q.mani- 
festatus : see on iii. 434. Heyne thought that the adj. tristis pro- 
perly belonged to sensu ; but Wagner justly observes, " Saepe 
in actione objectis adjunguntur epitheta quae iis tantisper dum 
actio durat conveniunt. Ita expedies Aen. iv. 102; vii. 343; 
et infra, v. 352." — amaror, a term adopted from Lucretius, in 
whom alone (iv. 225) this word occurs, and who was remark- 
ably fond of nouns ending in or. — 219. jactata, worked, like 
paste, putty, etc.— fatiscit, cracks, opens : see i. 1 80. — lentescit, 
it sticks. The idea of flexibility is included in all the deriva- 
tives of lenio : see on Ec. i. 5. — habendo, in handling, when 
being handled; passive. — 251. Uumida, etc. The commen- 
tators do not appear to have understood this rightly, for they 
look upon the second part of the verse as being little more 
than a repetition of the first. The meaning of the poet seems 
to be this: 'Moist land produces rank grass and weeds; by 
that sign you may know it; and if you proceed to cultivate it, 
you will to your cost find it to be too productive.' To this he 
subjoins a wish : ' Ah, may that over- fertile land never be mine 
(sc. to till), nor, as mine, exhibit its excessive power of pro- 
duction by sending the corn up too luxuriantly.' In i. 112 he 
gives the remedy, He should have added here, that this land 
should be reserved for meadow and pasture. — aristis. He uses 
this term of corn in all its stages of growth. — tacitam. He puts 
this in the ace, instead of the nom., probably from the neces- 
sity of the metre. — Promptum est, it is easy. — 256. Etquis cut 
color, ' and in general what the colour of any soil is.' — scelera- 
turn, cursed, pernicious. Thus there was in Rome the Vicus 
Sceleratus and the Campus Sceleratus. The word is not to be 
found in any extant author anterior to or contemporary with 
Virgil.— pandunt vestigia, 'give traces of it,' i.e. are signs of it. 

259-272. The preparation of the ground for a vineyard, 
and the rearing of the plants. — His animadversis. Having 
given due attention to all that has been said about the choice 
of soil, and selected the site of your vineyard, you are thus to 
proceed. — Excoquere, to bake, i. e. to let lie exposed to the 
sun and weather. There is a hysteron-proteron here, for the 



228 GEORGICS. 

trenching, which he mentions next, must precede. — 260. mag- 
nos. Martyn and Heyne would prefer to read magnis, as it 
would appear to be rather large trenches than large hills that 
were meant ; but Wagner says, " Bene magnos. Quam late 
pateat mons, totum scrobibus concidendum praecipit poeta, nee 
parcendum labori." It may however be one of those cases in 
which the adj. agrees with one noun in construction and with 
another in sense. — Ante. Heyne here also would in preference 
read atque, without any necessity : see v. 6. — supinatas, turned 
up (literally, laid on their backs) by the spades. — aquiloni, the 
north wind, used for wind in general, or for cold, in opposition 
to the heat of the sun intimated in excoquere, v. 260. — laetum, 
joyous, probably with reference to the effects of wine. — curant, 
i. q. proa/rant, provide for, i. e. effect: see Lucr. iv. 820. — 
labefacta, loosened, literally made to move or separate.— -ju- 
gera, i. e. solum, terrain. — 265. At si quos, etc., ' but those who 
are very particular.' — locum similem, a piece of ground in which 
the soil is similar to that of the future vineyard. — prima seges, 
the plants, cuttings, or seedlings. — quo, i. e. a quo. — digesta 
feratur. This is one of those strange constructions which are 
so frequent in the ancient poets ; it is in fact a hysteron-pro- 
teron, for it is i. q. feratur ut degeratur. — semina, the plants. — 
matron, their mother, i. e. the earth that gave them nutriment. 
— Quin etiam, etc. They even go so far as to mark on the bark 
of the plant the position in which it stood with respect to the 
cardinal points ; putting a mark, for instance, on the side facing 
the north or south, in order that they may give it the same 
position when transplanted : see Colum. v. 20. — axi, to the 
north pole. Cf. iii. 351 ; Lucr. vi. 720. — Adeo, etc. : a general 
maxim. — in teneris consuescere, ' to accustom while they are yet 
young.' 

273-287. Planting the vineyard. — Collibus, etc. ' First as- 
certain, from the nature of your land, whether you had better 
make your vineyard on the hills or on the level ground.' — Si 
pinguis, etc. ' If you fix on the latter, plant your vines thick.' 
— densa, i. q. dense. — in denso ubere, ' in thickly-planted land.' 
For uber, see v. 234. — non segnior, not more sluggish, i. e. is 
not less prolific, i. e. is more prolific than if planted otherwise. 



book ii. 260-284. 229 

— Sin tumults, etc. ' But if you plant on ground sloping with 
hills,' i. e. on the sloping soil of hills. — Indulge ordinibus, ' in- 
dulge your rows, give them greater liberty,' i. e. plant at 
greater intervals. — nee serins. This place has greatly per- 
plexed the commentators, and perhaps needlessly : its mean- 
ing appears to be as follows : Fearing that, from the precept 
indulge ordinibus, he might be supposed to recommend negli- 
gence and irregularity in laying out the vineyard, he adds nee 
seciics, nevertheless, no less here than in the plain, all the in- 
tervals between the rows (viae) must meet the alleys that cross 
them at right angles — in unguem, i. q. ad unguem, exactly, 
as in Horace (S. i. 5, 32) ad unguem f actus homo. The me- 
taphor, Servius says, is taken from the practice of sculptors, 
who tried the joinings in their works by passing their nail over 
them. — secto limite, i. e. semita. The vineyard was divided 
into horti, or plots, each containing about one hundred vines, 
by semitae, or alleys: Col. iv. 18. — 279. Ut saepe, etc. He 
illustrates the mode of planting the vineyard by the battle 
array of the Roman legion, which was what was termed in 
quincunx, or like the five of playing-cards : see Hist, of Rome, 
p. 172. Hence the critics infer that he directs the vineyard 
to be planted in this manner, which was reckoned the best 
(see Varro, i. 7; Plin. xvii. 11); but this does not by any 
means necessarily result from the text; and Martyn thinks 
that it is in equal rows that he directs the vines to be planted. 
— ingenti bello (dat.), for a great battle, or in a great war. We 
prefer the former. Ennius said (iv. 1.5), bellum Aequis de ma- 
nibus nox intempesta diremit ; and Lucretius (ii. 40), legiones 
per loca campi Fervere cum videas belli simulacra denies, which 
last passage he had probably in view. In both, bellum is i. q. 
proelium. — Explicuit, has unfolded ; as we say, using the 
French term, has deployed. — agmen, the line of march, as op- 
posed to acies, the line of battle.— -jluctuat, waves, the gleam of 
the arms, now striking the eye of the spectator, now vanishing. 
— 284. Omnia sint, i.e. Sic omnia sint. There should not be a 
full stop at the end off. 283. — Omnia viarum, i. q. omnes viae. 
— paribus numeris, with equal spaces. — animum inanem, an 
empty mind, that looks only to the gratification of the eye. — 



230 GEORGICS. 

pascere, feed, gratify. Oculos quipascere possunt, Lucr. ii. 419. 
— in vacuum. Heyne says " in aerem ;" but it rather is "in 
vacuum locum," into a space that is not already occupied by 
the branches of other vines. 

288-297- The depths at which different trees should be 
planted. — -fastigia, depth. This word, like alius, is used of 
depth as well as height: see Varro, R. R. i. 14, 2; 20, 5. — 
ml tenui, even to a shallow hole. The least depth at which 
the vine was planted was a foot and a half. — terrae, i. q. in 
terra : see Aen. v. 48 ; xi. 204. — arbos, a tree. Heyne says, 
" arbores quibus vites jungantur ;" but surely the Aesculus was 
not one of these trees. — quae quantum, etc. : a poetic exag- 
geration. — multos nepotes, many generations of men. — multa 
virum saecula. This is a mere variation of the preceding 
words. — volvens, rolling away, i. e. seeing roll away : " Homo 
per aliquod tempus vivens, annos menses dies secum agere 
rapere volvere videtur. Ilia imago h. 1. ad arbores translata 
est." Wunderlich. Multaque vivendo vitalia volvere saecla, 
Lucr. i. 203. — dtirando, by (or in) lasting. — ipsa, as opposed 
to the arms and boughs. 

298-314. Miscellaneous precepts on planting. — Neve tibi, 
etc. 'Let not your vineyard have a western aspect.' The 
aspect of the vineyard was a matter of dispute. Columella 
very sensibly advises to be guided by circumstances, as no one 
aspect was universally the best. — corulum. Pliny says (xvii. 
24) that the vine grows sick and melancholy if the hazel is 
near it. This may be one of the absurd notions with which 
this author abounds ; or the hazel may, by the number and ex- 
tent of its roots, really do in j ury. — neve Jlagella, etc. ' Nor, 
when you are going to set cuttings of the vine or other trees, 
take the upper ones.' — aut summa, etc. This seems to be 
merely a repetition of the preceding precept, at least if arbor 
is the vine. But Wagner maintains that arbor is a fruit-tree 
in general, and that the precept that had been given with 
respect to the vine is now extended to the other trees. Martyn, 
and perhaps with reason, says that by summa jlagella is meant 
the upper part of the shoot, which gardeners advise not to use, 
and summa arbore, from the top of the tree. The difficulty 



book ii. 288-315. 231 

lies in the word pete, which seems inappropriate. — Tantus 
amor terrae. The plants are so fond of the earth, that those 
are best which are nearest to it. — neu ferro, etc. ' Nor prune 
with a blunt knife.' This precept is still attended to by gar- 
deners. — 302. Neve oleae, etc. He passes now to the olive- 
grounds, and directs that grafts should not be made on wild 
olives, as they were so apt to take fire. — pastoribus, plur. for 
sing. : it is here used in a general sense, and means a person 
employed in the olive-ground. — Robora, the solid wood of the 
olive. — 306. caelo, i.q. ad caelum, v. 309. — nemus, i.e. olivetum. 
— ruit, drives. — tempestas, i. q. verities, v. 311. — a vertice, from 
the north. Cf. i. 24-2; Aen. i. 114. — silvis, i. q. nemus, v. 308. 
— glomerat, rolls, whirls. — Hoc ubi, sc. accidit. — non a stirpe 
valent, they have nc strength or power in the trunk to produce 
olives ; because it is burned below the graft. — caesaegue, etc., 
' nor, if they are cut down, will they become again productive.' 
Que, i. q. ve : see on v. 87. — atque ima, etc., ' or good suckers 
grow ,up.' — 3 14-. Infelix. etc. ' The unfruitful oleaster alone 
remains ;' and therefore says the poet, tacitly, you should graft 
on the cultivated olive, and not on the wild one. We must 
here inform the reader, that in understanding the whole of 
this passage (302-314) of an olive-ground, Ave have followed 
Wagner ; the critics in general understanding it of a vineyard. 
There is, we believe, no proof that vines and olives were ever 
planted together ; for Colum. iii. 11. is not such, and vv, 312- 
314?. quite contradict that supposition. On the other hand, we 
know from Pliny (xvii. 18) and Palladius (v. 2) that the olive 
used to be grafted on the oleaster ; and the latter directs, in 
order to obviate the clanger of which Virgil here speaks, that 
the graft should be made so as to be under the clay when the 
tree was earthed up. Finally, it is only the first two verses of 
this paragraph that properly relate to the vineyard. 

315-322. Time of planting. — Nee tibi, etc. 'Let no one, 
how skilful soever he may appear to be.' — Tellurem movere, 
to stir the ground, i. e. to dig it, in order to put in the young 
plants. — Borea spirante. From what follows, it appears that 
he means the winter, in which season the north is the prevalent 
wind. — seminejacto, when the plant is set. In v. 268 we have 



232 



GEORGICS. 



already seen semen used for surculum ; and here we have also 
jacio for sero. The poet, as abundant instances show, employs 
the terms of agriculture in the most arbitrary manner. — 318. 
Concretam radicem, the frozen root : see i. 236. — adfigere sc. 
se, adhere to, catch hold on, so as to draw nutriment from it. 
— 319. Optima satio, the best time of planting. — mbente, glow- 
ing, sc. with flowers and blossoms ; or perhaps with the light of 
the sun, as in i. 234. — Candida avis, the stork, ciconia, a bird 
of passage and that feeds on serpents : see Juv. xiv. 74. — 
Prima, etc., toward the end of autumn, as the cold of winter 
is commencing. Columella (iii. 14) says that the autumnal 
planting of vines is from the middle of October till December. 
— rapidus Sol. See on Ec. ii. 10. — kiemem, i. e. the winter- 
signs of the ecliptic, in this place Capricorn. — -jam, etc., sum- 
mer is past. One might have expected the ace, but the metre 
forbade it. In a general way the poet divides the year into 
aestcis and kiems. 

323-345. The praises of the Spring. — adeo. See on Ec. i. 
12. — nemorum silvis. By the former of these words he may 
mean plantations of trees, as vineyards, etc. ; by the latter, the 
natural woods. — tument, opyGm, swell, as the breasts of fe- 
males when come to maturity. — genitalia, productive, fecun- 
dating. — Turn pater, etc. The union of heaven and earth in 
the spring, which produces vegetation, and which the Greeks 
expressed by the mythic marriage of Zeus and Hera: see My- 
thology, p. 1 02. — 328. Avia, the remote or lonely. — certis, fixed, 
as only occurring at this time of the year : it is however only 
true of horses, of which he uses the term armenta, iii. 129. — 
Parturit, etc. See Ec. iii. 56. — tepentibus auris : a dat. — supe- 
rat, abounds, teems, overflows. — humor, the nutritive juices. — 
novos soles, new suns, i. e. new to them, which were only now 
coming into existence. — germina, the shoots, the new wood, 
sc. of the vine. — explicat, unfolds : see v. 280. 

336. Non alios, etc. From what the spring is at present, 
viz. the season of new life and production, he is led to infer 
that it was in this season the world was created, or that the 
series of the seasons in the beginning commenced with spring. 
He had here in view Lucr. v. 815. — tenorem, tenor, condition. 



book ii. 318-350. 233 

Cf. Aen. x. 340. It is a Lucretian term : see v. 509. — 33S. 
Mud, sc. tempus. — magnus orbis, sc. terrarum. — ver agebat, 
like agere festum. Septem egerat auctumnos, Ov. Met. iii. 327. 
— hibernis parcebant flatibus, refrained from wintry (i.e. cold 
and wet) blasts. — Ei/ri. The east wind was regarded as very- 
pernicious, and Horace (Epod. 16, 54) says of the Isles of the 
Blest, Jjt neque largis Aquosus Eurus arva radat hnbribus. 
Probably however Enri here is the winds in general. — lucem 
hausere, drank light ; for light was, poetically at least, viewed 
as a fluid (see Ec. vi. 33), of which Lucretius (iv. 203) uses 
the terms caelum rigare. — Terrea progenies, the earth-sprung 
race. The ordinary reading isferrea, iron, hardy; but terrea 
is the correction in the Medicean MS.: it is the reading of one 
MS. and of Philargyrius and Lactantius (ii. 10), and has been 
received by Voss, Jahn, Wagner and Forbiger. — daris arvis, as 
opposed to beds, the ordinary birthplace of mankind. — sidera. 
The stars were regarded by many as animated beings. Cf. Aen. 
i. 608. — Nee res, etc. ' Nor in fact could tender, new-formed 
beings (sc. plants and animals) ever come to be able to endure 
the present vicissitude of seasons.' — liunc laborem, this hard- 
ship, that men now experience from the extremes of heat and 
cold. — Inter. In logical correctness it should be ante — exci- 
peret, would receive, as the nurse does, the new-born babe. 
Throughout all this digression the idea of female parturition 
was present to the poet's mind. 

346-353. Further directions about planting. — Quod super- 
est. A usual form of transition with Lucretius. — qiiaecunque, 
etc., ' whenever you are planting out.' — premes : because the 
plants were pressed down in the loose clay in which they were 
set; or rather it was pressed about them. — virgulta, i.e. sur- 
culi, fiagella, etc. — Sparge, etc., ' mind to dung them well, 
and to put plenty of clay about them.' — out lapidem, etc. It 
would seem necessary to suppose a connecting particle here ; 
for the poet surely cannot mean the stones to be a substitute 
for dung and clay. — lapidem bibulum, pieces of sandstone that 
will imbibe the water. — squalentes conchas, rugged sea-shells, 
as those of the muscle, oyster, etc. — Halilus, air. — animos 
tollent, will take courage, i. e. will thrive. — 2>50.jamquc reperti, 



234 GEORGICS. 

* there are some.' An aorist as usual. — 351. saxo, with a large 
stone ; not however laid flat, but set at an angle on the ground 
close to the plant. — atque, i. q. aut. — ingentis, etc., with a heavy- 
piece of tile, or perhaps with an earthen pot laid over the 
plant. — hoc, Hoc, this, i. e. either the stone or the tile ; 
they both apply to the one object. — munimen, i. q. munimen- 
tum. Virgil is the earliest extant writer in whom this word 
occurs. Ovid adopted it from him, Met. iv. 773 ; xiii. 212. — 
ad, against. — Hoc, sc. munimen. — hiulca, gaping, proleptically : 
see on i. 320. — siti, with thirst. We Mould join this with hiulca, 
not with Jindit. — canis, i. e. Sirius. Arentes cum Jindit Sirius 
agros, Tibul. i. 7, 21. 

354—361. Digging about and propping the young vines. — 
diducere, to loosen, literally to draw asunder. This is the read- 
ing of the Roman and four other MSS., and is adopted by Voss, 
Jalm, Wagner and Forbiger. The Medicean and the others 
read deducere — ad capita, about or next to the plants. Circum 
capita addito stercus ; circum capita sarito, Cat. II. R. 33. — 
duros, etc., to work, up the ground with the bidens : see Terms 
of Husbandly, s.v. — exercere solum,. See on i. 99 — levis cala- 
mos, etc., as supports for the vines. — rasae hastilia virgae, 
straight, peeled rods, like the shaft of a spear. — summasque, 
etc., and at length to climb the stages on the elms. See Terms 
of Husbandry, v. Arbustum. 

362-370. Pruning. — Ac dum prima, etc. He recommends 
not to use the pruning-knife with the young vines, but to take 
away the superfluous shoots with the hand. Cato (33) gives 
the same precept, but Columella (iv. 11) says that experience 
had proved it to be incorrect. — ad auras. See on Ec. v. 61. — 
laxis habenis, a figure taken from horses. Cf. Aen. i. 63 ; 
v.662; vi. 1. Arboribusque datum est variis exindeper auras 
Crescendi magnum immissis certamen habenis, Lucr. v. 784. 
— per purum, i. q. per aerem, as v. 287, in vacuum. — Ipsa, sc. 
vitis, for this was in his mind all along. — acie. This is the read- 
ing of the best MSS. : others have acies. — amplexae, sc. vites. — 
validis stirpibus, with strong well-grown stems. — HJxierint, they 
have grown up, have gone out of their tender age : see v. 81. 
— turn stringe comas, etc., ' then prune away without fear ; 



book ii. 351-380. 235 

take away leaves and branches.' For stringe, see on i. 317. — 
Exerce imperia: see i. 99.— fluentes, straggling. 

371-379. Fencing the vineyard. — Texendae, etc. 'The 
hedges must be frequently repaired,' i. e. they must be kept 
close and unbroken. — tenendum, i. e. abstinendum, or arcen- 
dum. — Praecipue, etc., ' especially in the spring, while the 
leaves are tender.' — imprudens laborum, unacquainted with 
hardship. Cf. v. 343. Imprudens harum rerum, Ter. Eun. i. 
2, 56 ; imprudentes legis, Cic. Inv. ii. 31, 95. — indignas, such 
as it does not deserve, i.e. rough, severe. Cf. Ec. x. 10. — uri. 
The urus is described by Caesar (B. G. vi. 28) as a native of 
the Hercynian forest in Germany. It was, he says, almost as 
large as an elephant, but of the shape and colour of a bull ; of 
great strength, velocity and fierceness. It does not appear 
that it was to be found anywhere else ; and its name may be, 
as is said, a corruption of the German Urochs (i. e. Great -ox). 
Its name too may have become so familiar at Rome at that 
time, that Virgil might venture, as he has done, to use it for 
the wild oxen or buffaloes of Italy, which is the only sense in 
which it can be taken here. In iii. 552 he seems to use it in 
its proper sense. — caprae. This is the reading of the Medi- 
cean, Roman, and other good MSS., and is adopted by Wag- 
ner and Forbiger. The common reading is capreae, roes, 
which is supported by the following line of Horace (S. ii. 4,43), 
Vinea submittit capreas non semper edules. But, as Wagner 
observes, it would be strange if the poet were to omit the most 
pernicious animal of all, and afterwards introduce it in an in- 
cidental kind of way. The reading capreae seems to owe its 
origin to an idea that a wild animal should be joined with uri. 
— sequaces, following, persecuting (Cf. iv. 230), from the rest- 
less nature of the goat, that goes up and down selecting the 
green leaves and shoots. — Illudunt, waste, destroy: see i. 181. 
incumbens scopulis, lying on the rocks, and therefore heating 
them thoroughly. Vineyards were often planted on rocky 
hills. — nocuere, sc. vitibus. — venenum, the saliva of cattle, espe- 
cially of the goat, was thought to be poisonous to plants: 
see v. 196. 

380-396. A digression on the festivals of Bacchus in Greece 



236 GEORGICS. 

and in Italy. — 380. Non aliam, etc. 'It was for tin's and no other 
offence that the Athenians used to sacrifice the goat to Bac- 
chus, to which the drama is indebted for its origin.' The verbs 
caeditur and ineunt are to be understood in a past sense, in 
order to accord with those that follow. — veteres ludi, the old 
dramas, the first rude attempts at the drama.— proscenia. The 
proscenium was the stage, the part before the scena. — ingeniis, 
for men of talent; as in Horace (Ep. ii. 2, 81), Ingenium sibi 
quod vacuus desuwpsit Athenas. See Excursus VII. The 
common reading is ingentes.—pagos, etc., in the villages and at 
the crossroads round the country. — Thesidae, the people of 
Attica. This word, naming the people from their prince, is 
peculiar to Virgil : he formed it probably in imitation of 
the Aeneadae, (i. 1) and Romulidae (iv. 687) of Lucretius. — 
Praemia posuere, offered rewards. The festival was the rural 
Dionysia (rd kcit aypovs), and the reward was a buck-goat 
(rpciyot), whence tragedy is said to have derived its name : see 
Hor. A. P. 275. seg. — unctos saluere, etc. The ""AaKuikiacrfibs, 
or play of hopping on inflated goatskin bags which were 
smeared with oil : the numerous falls of course excited the 
merriment of the spectators. Saluere is the reading of the 
best MSS. : others have saliere.- — 385. Ansonii. Properly 
the Italians, but used here for the people of Latium, who 
were supposed to be indebted in part for their origin to the 
Trojan companions of Aeneas. — Versibus incomptis, with 
rude unpolished verses. These were extemporaneous, and 
were probably originally in the Saturn ian measure. The po- 
pular extempore verse in our poet's time would seem to have 
been the trochaic tetram. catal.: see Suetonius, Jul. 49, 51, 
80; Galba, 6; Veil. Pat. ii. 67 ; Schol. Juv. v. 3.— Ora, etc., 
' they put on them frightful masks made of cork.' — Et te Bac- 
che, etc., ' they sing hymns to Bacchus,' or rather to Liber, 
the proper Italian deity. — Oscilla. These were small images 
of the god that were, as here described, hung from the trees, 
and as they were moved by the air, and so turned their faces 
in different directions, they were held to indicate the favour- 
able regards of the deity on the plants in that direction — 
mollia, i. e. mobilia, from which it is contracted. It is a Lu- 



book ii. S80-S99. 237 

cretian word : see iv. 977 ; v. 1063 ; Hor. Sat. i. 9, 25. Virgil 
uses it again, Aen. viii. 666. — pimi. This tree was probably- 
selected because its branches are all at the top, so that nothing 
would impede the free motion of the oscillum. — 390. Com- 
plentur, etc. As the vineyards are mentioned in the preceding 
verse, we may suppose that by the vales and woods he means the 
cornels and other fruits and berries that grew wild in them. — 
voiles cavae : cf. v. 186. Pindar (Isth. iii. 19) has KoiXa va-nrq., 
and Livy (xxviii. 2) ibi in cava valle, atque ob id occulta, 
considcre militem jubet. The cava vallis would seem to an- 
swer to our restricted sense of the word glen, as opposed to 
the wide, spreading vale. — -profundi, deep, spreading far into 
the mountains. — Et quocunque, etc. : see on v. 389. — hones- 
turn, handsome. Cf. Aen. x. 1 33. Honestus is the Greek kuXos, 
and is used of the mind as well as of the person. — 393. suum 
honorem, his due praises. — patriis, that have been handed 
down to us from our forefathers. — lances, dishes or plates on 
which the offerings to the god were presented : see on v. 194. 
— liba, cakes smeared with honey : see on Ec. vii. 63. These 
were used at the festival of the Liberalia: see Ov. F. iii. 761, 
and the passage from Varro in our note there on v. 726. — 
ductus cornu. This was the way in which the goat was usually 
led to the altar. — exta, the joints. Such parts of the carcass 
as were not consumed on the altar were feasted on by the 
worshipers. The adj. pinguia shows that it is not of the heart, 
liver, etc. that he is speaking. Exta is here probably, as Aen. 
vi. 254, i. q. viscera, that is, says Servius, " quicquid inter 
ossa et cutem est." — colurnis, hazel ; this tree being, like the 
goat, hostile to the vine : see v. 299. From corulus was formed 
the adj. corulinus, contracted to corulnus, and then, for the 
sake of euphony, by metathesis made colurnus. 

398-419. Incessant labour about, and attention to, the vines. 
— Me labor, that toil. Ille is emphatic, to call the attention of 
the reader. — Cui numquam exhausti satis est, i. q. qui numquam 
satis exhauritur. In thus using the part, for a subst., he followed 
the example of Lucretius. — namque, i. e. nempe. — 399. Terque, 
etc., several times. — scindendum, is to be broken, loosened, 
stirred up, sc. with the bidentes. — gieba, etc. ' When that has 



238 GEORGICS. 

been done, you must break the clods with the other side of 
the bidens.' — WO. Aeternum, evermore, without ceasing. See 
Aen. vi. 400, 617 ; Hor. Ep. i. 10, 41. — levandum, etc. ' the 
leaves must be stripped off all the vines,' the pampinatio. — ne- 
mus : see v. 308. — redit labor actus in orbem. Heyne says the 
construction is, "Labor qui actus erat redit in orbem." It would 
however seem to be a metaphor taken from the races of the 
Circus, in which the chariots were driven round and round. — 
Atque in se, etc., ' and the year rolls itself on itself along its 
own traces.' Probably an allusion to its Greek name. Varius, 
the poet's contemporary, also spoke of the year as sua se vol- 
ventis in vestigia. — 103. jam olim, i. q.jam turn, t\405. Olim 
is used of the future as well as of the past. Cf. Aen. v. 125; 
Hor. S. ii. 3, 60. — Frigidus, etc. This verse, Servius says, was 
taken from Varro Atacinus. — silvis, from the woods in general. 
— Itonorem, the leaves, which are the ornament or honour of 
the trees. — acer rusticus, the active diligent farmer. — curvo 
Saturni dente, the pruning-hook, the emblem of Saturn. — re- 
lictam vitem, the vine abandoned, as it were, of its fruit and 
foliage, and left deserted. — Persequitur. He, as it were, takes 
advantage of its desolate condition, and persecutes \t.—fingit- 
que putando, forms it, brings it into proper condition by 
pruning. Perhaps it is a metaphor from breaking horses, of 
which he says (Aen. vi. SO), Jingitque premendo. 

408. Primus humum, etc. ' Be the first to dig and prune 
your vineyard, but be the last to gather your grapes ; for the 
more thoroughly ripe they are the better will be your wine.' — 
Sarmenta, the branches that were cut off in pruning. — vallos, 
the stakes or poles that supported the vines. They were taken 
up and put under covert at the end of the vintage, like our 
hop-poles and pea-stakes. — metito, literally reap ; an instance 
of the interchange of the terms of husbandry in this poem. 
Elsewhere (iv. 231) he uses messis of honey. — Bis vitibus, etc. 
The vines require to have the leaves stript off them twice a 
year, in spring and autumn. — Bis segetem, etc. The vineyard 
must also be weeded twice a-year. — segetem, i. e. vineam. — 
sentibus, with their thorns, i. e. their noxious growth. — uterque 
labor, sc. of pampination and of weeding. — Laudato, etc. Ergo 



book ii. 400-424. 239 

is understood. ' You may therefore praise large farms, but take 
my advice and cultivate a moderate-sized one, which you may 
expect to be able to manage well.' — 413. Nee non, etc. A 
further labour of the vine-dresser is to cut ruscus in the woods, 
and reeds on the sides of rivers, and willows in the osiery for 
tying his vines, etc. — incidti, because it requires little or no 
culture. — cura, viz. that of cutting and preparing the rods. — 
arbusta, i. e. vineae. — 417. Jam canit, etc. The vine-dresser has 
tied up and pruned all his vines, singing, as was usual, at his 
work. — effectos extremus. This is the reading of the Med. and 
Rom. MSS. and others, adopted by Wagner, Jahn and For- 
biger. Others read effetos extremus or effetus extremus, etc. 
All the editions, from that of Aldus down (those of Heyne 
and Voss included), have extremos effetus ; but, as Wagner 
very justly observes, effetus cannot properly be applied to the 
vine-dresser, who has merely finished his labour, but is by no 
means exhausted by it. He is termed extremus, as having 
come to the end of the vines ; or, as in so many instances al- 
ready noticed, this adj. properly belongs to antes, which are 
termed effectos as being finished. — antes, plots. Ad is under- 
stood. — Sollicitanda, etc. Still his labour and anxiety are not 
at an end ; the soil must be stirred up with the plough or the 
bidens, and hail and rain are to be dreaded. — pulvis movendus. 
The surface of the soil, when dug or ploughed, is to be pulve- 
rised by breaking the clods : or pulvis may be merely i. q. 

tellus Juppiter, i. e. Jup. Pluvius, the god being put for the 

sky or weather over which he presides, as in Hor. C. i. 22, 19. 
Nebulae malusque Juppiter urget. 

420—125. Culture of the olive. — non idla cidtura. That is 
in comparison with the vines, for they require some culture. — 
Cum semel, etc. When they have once struck root. — auras 
tulerunt, have stood the weather : see v. 332 seq. — satis, to the 
plants. Cf. v. 267 and v. 436. Some however, among whom is 
Jahn, take satis as an adv. — dente unco, i. e. with the bidens. — 
424. humorem, the requisite moisture. — vomere, sc. recluditur. 
Servius (who is followed by Wagner) takes cum as a preposi- 

V. 412. Nij' oXiyrjv aiveiv, [leydky d' evi (popria QeoQai. — Hes.'Epy. 643. 



240 GEORGICS. 

tion in this place, adding that it is superfluous, as in this line of 
Ennius, Effundit voces proprio cumpectore sancto. — k2^.fruges, 
fruit, i. q.fructus. Columella (ix. 1) has fruges robumei for 
acorns. The same writer, when treating of the culture of the 
olive, says (v. 9, 15), Nam veteris proverbii meminisse convenit : 
eum qui aret olivetum rogare fructum ; qui stercoret exorare ; 
qui caedat (i. e. putet) cogere. — Hoc, i. e. propter hoc ; a Lu- 
cretian formula ; or perhaps hoc in modo. — Paci, to the god- 
dess Peace. The olive, it is well known, was the symbol of 
peace: see Aen. vii. 154- ; xi. 101. — nutritor. The imperat. 
of nutrior, anciently used for nutrio : see Prise, viii. 5, 26. 

426-4-53. The culture of other kinds of trees. — Poma, i. q. 
pomi (see v. 34), fruit-trees, apples, pears, cherries, etc. — 
quoque, i. e. like the olive. — ut prinwm, etc., as soon as they 
get strength. Cf. v. 422. — nituntur, shoot up, struggle up. — 
429. interea, i. e. while we are cultivating the vine, olive, etc. 
— -fetu, i. e. with wildings. — aviaria, the haunts of birds, i. e. 
the thickets. An aviarium was properly a part of the farm- 
buildings, in which thrushes and other birds were shut up and 
fattened. The present is the only instance of its employment 
in any other sense. — Sanguineis baccis: see Ec. x. 27. — Ton- 
dentur, are browsed by the goats, i. e. afford them food. — 
taedas, firewood of fir. — Pascuntur, etc. With which we keep 
up fires at night, by whose light we can' work. — Et dubitant, 
etc. When such is the utility of these trees, will any one hesi- 
tate about planting them and bestowing on them the little care 
they may require ? It is remarkable that this verse is wanting 
in the Med. MS. — 434. Quid majora sequar? The fut. sequar 
can hardly refer to what has preceded ; a critic therefore pro- 
posed to read sequor in opposition to all the MSS. But Wag- 
ner says the reference is in reality to v. 437. For the force 
of et in that verse, see Aen. v. 109 seq. ; 839 seq. ; ix. 176 seq. 
— Mae, even they, emphatic. — umbras, sc. in the heat of sum- 
mer. — satis, for the corn-fields, plantations of vines, etc — 
melli, i. e. apibus. — Cytorum, a mountain of Paphlagonia near 
Amastris, famous for its box- wood. Cytore buxifer, Catull. iv. 
13. He applies the part, undans, waving, which properly be- 
longs to the trees, to the hill on which they grew. — Naryciae 



BOOK II. 424-454. 241 

picis. Naryx or Narycum was a town in Opuntian Locris, in 
Greece. The poet uses Narycian for Locrian in general ; for a 
Locrian colony settled in the south of Italy (see Aen. iii. £99) ; 
and it is of the pix Bruttia,often mentioned by ancient writers, 
that he is speaking.- 138. arva, i. q. tractus, terras. — rastris, a 
dak— obnoxia, under obligation to : see on i. 396. — 440. Ipsae, 
etc. ' For example, those very barren woods on the summit of 
Caucasus.' — sferiles, i.e. comparatively so, with respect to fruit- 
trees. — Euri, winds in general. — : fericnt, carry away, sc. the 
branches they have broken off.— aliae, sc. silvae in v. 440. — 
fetus, products, i. e. different kinds of timber. — dant utile, etc. 
' They furnish, for example, pines, a timber useful in ship- 
building, and cedars and cypresses that are used in the con- 
struction of houses.'— 144. Hinc, from these woods, i. e. from 
other trees that grow in them, ash for example. — radios, spokes. 
— trivere, because they are partly rounded. This verb and the 
following posuere are aorists. — tympana, drums, i. e. wheels 
made solid or all in one piece. They are still used in some 
remote parts of Ireland. — pandas, curved. It is probably the 
ship-builders, and not the agricolae, that is to be understood 
with jjosuere, — 446. Viminibus, in withes, for tying up vines. 
He now quits the woods of Caucasus.— -frondibus, in leaves, 
for foddering cattle. — hastilibus, in shafts of spears : see iii. 23 ; 
vii. 817. — bona bello, good for war, i. e. for making spears, 
darts, etc. See Aen. ix. 698. — Ituraeos. Ituraea was the re- 
gion beyond the Jordan : the Arabs who dwelt in it were, 
like the Orientals, in general held to be famous archers. The 
adj. is here an epithet, ornans. — Nee tiliae, etc. The lime and 
the box are both good woods for the use of the turner. Nee 
...non, i. e. necnon.—ferro acuto, i. e. torno. — *nrentem, the 
rushing, foaming. — missa, i. e. immissa, launched. — Pado, on 
the Po, i. e. on any river. — Corticibus, etc. The commentators 
say that two kinds of beehives are meant here, that of bark, 
Var. R. R. iii. 16, and that ex arbore cava, Id. ib. Perhaps 
the poet only means that the bees settle of themselves in the 
holes of decaying trees. 

454—457. These are the advantages of the timber-trees, and 
what has the vine about the culture of which we are so solici- 

M 



242 GEORGICS. 

tous to compare with them ? On the contrary it has given oc- 
casion to crime. — 4:55. Bacchus, i.e. vinum.- -Me f mentis, etc. 
As an example he cites the battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths 
at the marriage of Pirithoiis, caused by the excess in wine of 
the former. — Rhoetumque, etc. : particularly the following. — 
cratere. The crater was the large vessel in which, at an enter- 
tainment, the wine stood mixed with the requisite quantity of 
water, and whence it was drawn in the pocida and handed to 
the guests. The modern punch-bowl and glasses answer to 
the ancient crater and pocida. 

458-474. The remainder of this book is devoted to the 
praises of a country life. The poet seems to have wrought it 
con amore, and in the whole of his works there is nothing su- 
perior to it in poetic beauty. Compare the second Epode of 
Horace. — -fortunatos nimium, i. e. fortunatissimos. Nimivs is 
frequently i. q. permagnus, and nimium i.q. valde. Homo nimia 
pttlchritudine, Plaut. Mil. iv. 2, 8. Lacteus hie nimio fulgens 
candore notatur, Cic. Arat. v. 249. Qui nimia levitate cadunt, 
Lucr. iii. 338. Hue nimium felix aeterno nomine Lesbos, 
Lucan, viii. 139. — ipsa, avri), av-o^avoa, volcns. — discordibus 
armis. An allusion to the civil wars. — humo, from its soil, its 
surface.— -facikm, easy to be procured, to be had without much 
labour.— -justissima, most just, as returning with abundant in- 
terest whatever has been committed to her ; or, i.q. aeqtrissima, 
most kind. — 461. Si non, etc. ' If they have not the pomp and 
pride of wealth, clients crowding in the morning to salute 
them, and rich furniture,' etc. — -foribus, through the doors. In 
ancient as in modern Italy, the doors, as well as gates, were 
double, or what is called folding. — Mane salutantum. The 
clients repaired at break of day to the house of their patron 
to pay him their respects. Prima salutantes atque altera con- 
tinet horcc, Mart. iv. 8, 1. In Virgil's time it would seem to 
have been still earlier ; for Q. Cicero, writing to his brother 
(De Pet, Con. 15), speaks of it as being multa node, i. e. to- 
ward the end of night; and Catiline's associates, constituere ea 
nocte paulo post cum armatis hominibus, sicuti salutatum, in- 
troire ad Ciceronem, and murder him, Sail. Cat. 28. — vomit. 
Hence the entrances into theatres and amphitheatres were 



book ii. 455-474-. 243 

called vomitoria, as pouring in and out the crowds of spectators. 
— 462. totis aedihus, into the whole house. Aedes is the same 
as domas in the preceding verse, according to the usual prac- 
tice of Latin poetry. — varios, i. q. variatos, variegated. — in- 
hiant, gape at, i. e. admire. — pastes, apparently L q. fores. It 
was usual to adorn the leaves of the doors, as well as the 
couches and other furniture, with tortoiseshell, ivory, etc. 
Et svffixa manu foribus testudinis Indae Terga sedent, Lu- 
can, x. 120. — Illusas auro vestis. Vestis is here the couch- 
covers : see Lucr. ii. 35 ; Hor. S. ii. 6, 102 ; Ov. M. viii. 657. 
They had figures worked into them with gold-thread, i. e. were 
embroidered with gold : they were usually red or purple : 
see Aen. i. 700. — Ephyre'ia aera, vessels made of the metal 
called Corinthian brass, which were of great value. Ephyra 
was the ancient name of Corinth. — 465. Assyria, i. q. Syrio, 
i. e. Oriental. — veneno, dye, i. e. the Phoenician or purple dye. 
Venenum . . . . eo nomine omne continetur quod adhibitum ejus 
naturam, cui adhibitum est, mutat, Caius Dig. L. 16, 236. It 
is of dress that the poet is now speaking. — casia, cassia, the 
fragrant bark, like cinnamon : see the Flora — liquidi, clear, 
as so often. — usus olivi, i. e. oleum quo utuntur. Cf. iii. 135 ; 
Hor. C. iii. 1, 42. — 467. secura, i. e. sine cura. In old Latin 
se was i. q. sine. — nescia fallere (a Grascism), that knows not 
to (i. e. will not) deceive or disappoint of the advantages which 
it promises, like that of the people of wealth and power who 
were exposed to proscriptions and other dangers. — latis fundis. 
Not the latifundia, but estates having variety of surface, con- 
taining spreading hills, caverns, etc. — vivi lacus, ponds consist- 
ing of running perennial water. — -frigida Tempe, cool valleys. 
Te/jurea or Tefnn) (a Tefivu)?) signified a valley in general, and 
was not peculiar to the celebrated one in Thessaly : see Ovid. 
Fast. iv. 477 ; A. A. i. 15 ; Stat. Th. i. 485.— 471. lustra fera- 
rum, the haunts of game, i.e. hunting is there. — patiens operum, 
etc., able to bear work and living moderately ; opposed to the 
town population. — Sacra deum, etc. The sacred rites of the 
gods are there performed with more devotion, and parents are 
held in greater respect. — 474. extremaper illos. 'Justice, when 
quitting the earth, in the brazen age of the world, abandoned 

m 2 



244 GEOUGICS. 

the country the last ;' i. e. there remain in the country some 
vestiges of primeval innocence and virtue. 

475-489. He gives the preference to a life devoted to lite- 
rature and philosophy ; but if he cannot attain to that, he will 
adopt a rural life before any other. — dulces ante omnia. We 
agree with the critics who take these words together, and as 
equivalent to dulcissimae. Thus Ec. iii. 61, Nobis placent ante 
omnia silvae. Compare the expressions optime rerum, dulcis- 
sime renon. Aratus (Phaen. 16) has /xovaat yueiAi'x'C". — sacra 
fero, ' whose sacred emblems I bear.' The allusion is to the 
rites of Bacchus, as appears from the passage of Lucretius 
which he had in view. It is to that author's poem, and not to 
those of Empedocles and other ancient philosophers, that he 
alludes in the following verses, and which he fain would emu- 
late. — caeli vias et sidera, i. e. vias siderum in caelo. — Defcctus 
solis, the changes in the appearance of the sun. He may have 
had in his mind its appearance after the death of Caesar : see 
i. 457- — Lunae labores, the eclipses of the moon. He varies 
the phrase from Lucretius, as it is the eclipse, not the change 
from old to new, that he wishes to express. Labor is toil or 
suffering: see i. 150. — Unde tremor terris, the causes of earth- 
quakes. — qua vi, etc., those of the flow and ebb of the tide. 
He of course means the tides of the ocean, as they are hardly 
perceptible in the Mediterranean. — Obicibus ruptis. As if 
they were restrained or held down by some material barriers. 
For the metre, see on i. 482. — Quid tantum, etc. Why the 
days are so short and the nights so long in winter. — 483. Sin, 
has ne possim, etc. ' But if the cold blood about my heart pre- 
vents me from attaining this knowledge of nature.' It was the 
opinion of some of the ancient philosophers that the blood 
about the heart was the seat of thought, and as that was warm 
or the reverse the mental powers were vigorous or obtuse. 

V.475 sed acri 

Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor, 
Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem 
Musarum. — Lucr. i. 921. 

V. 478. Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras. 

Pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandum 'st. — Id. ib. v. 750. 



book ii. 475-494. 245 

Alfia yap avdpunrots irepiKapdiov ecri %'6r\pa. Empedocles in 
Et. Mag. v. ulfjia.. Lucretius makes the heart the abode of 
the animus. — 485. rigui amnes, the rivers that flow through or 
water.- — in vallibus. This should be connected with placeant. 
— inglorius, without attaining to fame or honour by philosophy, 
or arms, or eloquence. Cf. iv. 94 ; Aen. ix. 548 ; x. 52 ; xi. 793 ; 
xii. 397. — O tibi, etc., sc. qui me sistat, from the following 
verses. We agree with Heyne and Voss in following Ascen- 
sius in this mode of supplying the ellipse : it is certainly the 
more Virgilian. Jahn and Forbiger follow Ruaeus in under- 
standing sunt. Qui sistat is opt., not interrogative. — campi 
Spercheosque, the plains of Spercheos, a river of Thessaly. — 
Taygeta, sc. juga, oprj. — bacchata (passive), on which they 
celebrated the rites of Bacchus, a temple to whom, only to be 
approached by women, stood at the foot of that mountain. 
Paus. iii. 20. Lucretius however (v. 822) uses bacchor simply 
for to range. — O qui me, etc., i. e. O ubi est qui, etc. — prote- 
gat, cover me over. It is more than the simple tegat. 

490-502. Felix, etc. The philosopher is happy in the pos- 
session of knowledge, but so also is the dweller of the country 
in his exemption from ambition and all its cares and dangers. 
— metus oninis, etc. The great object of the ancient philoso- 
phers, especially the Epicureans, was to overcome the dread 
of death and the terrors of a future state. Here particularly 
the poet has his eye on several places of Lucretius. — strepitum, 
the din, the noise that was made about the abode of the dead ; 
not the roaring of the waves of the river Acheron. — Acherontis 
avari, the insatiable Acheron ; like avarum mare, Hor. C iii. 
29, 61. Acheron is here i.q. Erebus. See Mythology, p. 552. 
— ille qui novit, etc., i. e. agricola. — 494. Pana, etc., namely 



V. 491. Quare Relligio pedibus subjecta vicissim 
Obteritur. — Lucr. i. 79. 
Diffugiunt animi terrores, moenia mundi 
Discedunt. — Id. iii. 16. 

At contra nusquam apparent Acherusia templa. — Id. i. 25. 
Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus 
Funditus, humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo. — Id. i. 37. 



24-6 GEORGICS. 

Pan, etc. See on i. 138. — 4*95. poptdi fasces, the consulate at 
Rome. — purpura regum, the purple robes of kings, in Parthia 
and the countries not subject to Rome.- -Flexit, i. e. flectit, 
i. q. movet. Aen. vii. 252. All the verbs from v. 490 are 
aorists. — et, i. q. ant- -injidos agitans, etc. The allusion is 
said to be to the contest for the Parthian throne between 
Phraates and Tiridates (see Hor. C. i. 26, 3 seq. ; Justin, xlii. 
5); but these were not brothers. It is therefore probably 
merely a general one to the contests between brothers and 
cousins for the thrones of the East, which continue down to 
our own days. — Aut conjurato, etc. The part, properly be- 
longs to Dacus. The Dacians dwelt in the mountains of 
Transylvania beyond the Danube or Hister ; hence probably 
they are said to descend. At this time they were beginning 
to make incursions into some of the frontier Roman provinces. 
— Nee res Itomanae, etc. Nor does he concern himself about 
the public affairs of Rome, or those of kingdoms destined to 
fall by her arms or by those of each other. This is pure Epi- 
curean philosophy ; but we must recollect that it is of the 
agricola in general, and not of the Italian in particular, that he 
is speaking. — perituraque. Here the que is probably i. q. ve. — 
499. Aut doluit miserans, etc. Because, living in the country, 
where all is abundance, there is no distress to cause him pain ; 
and having enough, and not witnessing any great display of 
wealth, he feels no em/. — habenti, i. e. diviti, a frequent 
meaning of habere.— ferrea jura, iron laws, on account of their 
rigour. — Insanum forum. On account of the violent contests 
both in public and private affairs of which it was so often the 
scene. — tabularia, i. q. tabularium. The Tabularium was the 
place in which the archives of the state were kept. As the 
contracts with the Publicans, or farmers of the revenue, were 
among these, the critics think the meaning of this place is that 
the agricola does not farm taxes. 

503-512. The pursuits of ambition and avarice. — 503. Sol- 
licitant... regum. Voss and Heyne, as it would appear, under- 
stood here three modes of obtaining wealth, viz. trade, war, 
and the favour of the great ; Wagner thinks the whole refers 
to one subject, namely foreign war, as opposed to civil war, 



book n. 495-508. 247 

v. 505. This latter is perhaps the better mode of interpreta- 
tion, ut gemma bibant, etc. being understood from v. 506 after 
regum. — 503. caeca, dark, dangerous, as being full of shoals 
and sunken rocks. — ruunt in ferritin, rush to battle. — pene- 
trant, etc., storm cities and plunder the palaces which they 
contain ; or merely enter palaces as courtiers. — aulas et limina 
is a hendyadis. — petit excidiis, attacks in order to destroy, like 
petere bello. — urbem, sc. Romanam, Rome. — miseros Penates, 
the houses of his unhappy fellow- citizens ; or perhaps the Pe- 
nates or guardian gods of Rome. — Ut gemma, etc. The reason 
why men engage in foreign and civil wars is that they may 
acquire wealth, so as to possess costly drinking-cups made of 
single gems, such as onyx, or set with others of greater value, 
as was the custom at Rome, and have purple couch-covers ; 
see v. 464. — Sarrano, Tyrian ; from Sarra, a name of Tyre 
(formed like it from the Phoenician name Tsor), as Poenus 
Sarra oriundus in Ennius. — Condit opes, etc. Another, in- 
stead of spending his wealth in luxury, stores it up and broods 
over it. Cf. Aen. vi. 610. — 508. Hie stapet, etc. Another is 
lost in admiration of popular eloquence, as poured forth by a 
Cicero or other great orator from the Rostra in the Forum, 
and longs to acquire the same powei". — hunc plausus hiantenu 
Another, hearing the repeated shouting and clapping of hands 
of people of all ranks in the theatre at the presence of a Pom- 
peius, a Cicero, a Maecenas (Hor. C. ii. 17, 25), is ambitious 
of the same applause. Cf. Lucan, i. 133. — cuneos. In the 
ancient theatres and amphitheatres, as the part where the 
spectators sat was an arc of a circle, the rows of seats also 
formed arcs, which increased in compass as they receded from 
the front. Passages for the spectators to enter and reach their 
seats ran from back to front, intersecting the rows, and thus 
dividing them into separate portions, which, as they were broad 
above and narrow below, were named cunei or wedges. Each 
spectator's tessera designated the cuneus and row in which he 
was to sit. The amphitheatre at Verona and the theatre at 
Pompeii exhibit the cunei clearly. — enim, i. q. sane, utique, Erj. 
Cf. Aen. ii. 100; viii. 84. See on iii. 70. This power of enim 
appears very plainly in enimvero and sed enim. Voss and Jahn 



248 GEORGICS. 

agree with those who make a parenthesis of geminatus cnim. — 
509. p>utrumque.... gaudent perfusi, etc. His mind reverting to 
the evils of civil commotions, he represents the victors as re- 
joicing, though, as was so often the case, sprinkled with the blood 
of their own near relations. Fratres, we must recollect, included 
cousins. Gaudent perfusi is a G racism : cf. Aen. ii. 377 ; x. 
426, 500 ; xii. 6, 702. — Exsilioque, etc. Others, i. e. the van- 
quished (que, i. q. aut), quit their country and seek foreign 
lands : exsilio, the place of exile. — Atque alio, etc. Horace 
says (C. ii. 16, 18), Quid terras alio calentes sole mutamus? — 
513. Agricola, etc. The opposite advantages of the country. 
— anni labor, the toil of the year, i. e. the produce of that toil. 
— meritos, deserving of their support, as having merited it by 
ploughing. — Nee requies. There is no cessation of production. 
— exuberet, abounds. This verb seems to be only another form 
of exsupero, exupero, and not to be derived from uber. — met' 
gife. " Manipulos spicarum mergites dicimus." Servius. The 
word only occurs in this place in this sense. The mergis seems 
to have been a heap of corn collected with the mergae or 
pitchforks. — oneret sidcos, i. e. when growing or when cut. — 
atque horrea vineat, i. e. when carried: see i. 49. — 519. Venit 
hiems ; teritur, etc., i. e. cum venit, etc. In the winter the 
olives, for which Sicyon was famous, were pressed. Trapetus, 
trapetum, pi. trapetes (jpaTrr)Ti)s a rpcnreu), calco), the olive- 
press. — Glande sues laeti. The construction is sues laeti 
glande. Laeti is here perhaps sleek, fattened. — Et varios, etc. 
Autumn too yields its produce. He goes back, we may see, 
to another season. — ponit, i. q. deponit, lays down, yields. — et 
alte, etc. The grapes ripen on the rocky hills. — 523. oscula, 
i. e. ora or labra: Aen. i. 256. — Casta pudiciiiam, etc., i. e. 
pudica est miclier. — ubera, etc., ' they let down their milky 
udders,' i. e. their udders are large and full. — agitat, freq. of 
ago. — Ignis, i. e. ara. — cratera coronant. It was the custom 



V. 510. Sanguine civili rem conflant, divitiasque 

Conduplicant avidi, caedem caedi accumulantes. 

Crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris, 

Et consanguineum mensas odere timentque. — Lucr. iii. 70. 



book ii. 509-541. 249 

to bind the craters with wreaths of flowers : see Aen. i. 726 ; 
iii. 525.- pecoris magistris, the herdsmen : see Ec. ii. 33. — 
certamina, i. e. dd\a, the prizes of the contest : see Aen. v. 66. 
Wagner however thinks that certamen ponere can only signify 
cert, instituere, ayiSva Trporidevai ; but this will ill accord with 
in idmo, unless we suppose that they were to cast their darts 
at a mark on the elm. — nudant, sc. pecoris magistri. The 
common reading is nudat. — agresti palaestrae, for the rustic 
ring, as we may say. 

532-540. This was the mode of life in the good old times 
of Italy. — -fortis Etruria crevit, Etruria grew powerful. In 
the early days of Rome the Tuscans were powerful both by 
sea and land. — Scilicet, sane, h). We would, with Forbiger, 
join this word with what precedes, and place a comma after it. 
— reritm pidcherrima, greatest and most illustrious of states, 
Xpfjpa kciXXlotov. The word res is inclusive of persons singly 
or collectively, as well as of things ; thus pulcherrime rerum is 
said of a man : Ov. Met. viii. 89 ; Her. iv. 125. Pidcher m 
the sense of flourishing occurs in Florus ii. 19, pidcherrimus 
popidus, and iv. 1, pidcherrimum imperium. — Septem arces, 
the seven hills. — una muro, that of Servius Tullius. — Ante 
etiam, etc. This also was the life of the men of the golden 
age. — Dictaei regis, of Jupiter, who was said to have been 
reared in a cavern of Mount Dicte in Crete. — Impia. This 
word is to be taken rather in the sense of unkind, ungrateful, 
than of impious ; for there does not appear to be any impiety 
in eating animal food, while to slaughter the labouring ox, the 
companion of the husbandman's toil, was regarded as an un- 
feeling, cruel act. — Aureus, as ruling over the golden race of 
men. — classica, sc. signa, the charge, which was given with 
trumpets and horns. — enses, i. e. the iron from which they were 
to be formed. 

541, 542. It is time to conclude this book. The metaphor 
is taken from travelling. — spatiis, in stages : see i. 512. — 

V. 537. Ol TTpwroi KctKoepyov exctXicevsavTO fid\aipav 
BlvoSirjv, 7rpoJTOi Se (3owv eTrdaavr' dpoTijpcuv. 

Arat. Phaen. 131. 
M 5 



250 GEORGICS. 

aequor, a plain : see i. 50.—fumantia. Some good MSS. read 
spumantia ; but that will not agree with colla. 



BOOK III. 



Argument. 



Invocation, 1, 2. Novelty of the subject and triumph of 
the poet, 3-39. Call to Maecenas, 40-4*8. Choice of cows 
and breeding, 49-71. Choice of a stallion, 72-94. Subject 
continued, 95-122. Care of the sire, 123-137. Care Of the 
mothers, 138-156. Care of the calves, 157-178. Care of 
foals, 179-203. Effects of desire in bulls, 204-241. In other 
animals, 242-285. Care of sheep and goats, 286-294. In 
the winter, 295-321. In the summer, 322-338. The African 
herdsman, 339-348. The Scythian winter, 349-383. Of 
wool; choice of a ram, 384-393. Of milk, .394-403. Of 
dogs, 404-413. Warnings against serpents, 414-439. Dis- 
eases of sheep and their remedies, 440-463. Directions to 
avert contagion, 464- 177. Description of a pestilence among 
cattle, 478 to end. 

Notes. 

1-9. The present book being devoted to the subject of 
cattle, he commences with the mention of the principal deities 
presiding over them. — magna Pales : see on i. 339. For 
Pales, see Mythology, p. 538. — pastor ab Amphryso, sc. Apollo 
Nomios, who fed the flocks of Admetus on the banks of the 
Amphrysus in Thessaly. Ab Amphryso, 'AfxfpvatjOev. Pas- 
tores a Pergamide, Varro, R. R. ii. 2. — silvae, etc. The haunts 
of Pan are here put for that deity himself. — Cetera, etc., all 
other subjects of poetry have been repeated even to satiety. 
— vacuas mentes, unoccupied, idle minds. — carmine. Many 



BOOK III. 1-10. 251 

MSS. read carmina, and it is by no means certain which is 
the true reading. — 4. vulgata, made common, known to all. — 
Quis aut Eurysthea, etc. Who, for example, is ignorant of 
the whole history of Hercules, with his hard task-master Eu- 
rystheus, the Egyptian tyrant Busiris, who offered strangers 
in sacrifice, and the youth Hylas whom the water-nymphs 
carried off? — illaudati, i. q. detestandi, by litotes, a figure 
common with our poet. " Illaudatus est quasi illaudabilis, 
qui neque mentione aut memoria ulla dignus neque unquam 
nominandus est." Gell. ii. 6. Neither Gellius nor the critic 
to whom he was replying appears to have seen the full force 
of words of this kind. — Qui, sc. a quo poeta. — Latonia Delos, 
i. e. the wanderings of Latona and the birth of Apollo and 
Diana in the isle of Delos have also been the theme of poets. 
See the Hymns of Callimachus. — Hippodame, etc. Poets 
also have celebrated the adventures of Pelops with his ivory 
shoulder, and his winning Hippodame, the daughter of Oeno- 
maus, in the chariot-race. We may here observe, that it must 
have been the Greek poets that he had in view, for none of 
these subjects seem to have been treated of by any Roman 
poet of that time. — acer equis, leivbs 'nrweveiv. Ace?- is i. q. 
strenuus, and is used poetically with an abl. case. — 8. Ten- 
tanda via est, etc., ' I must try some other way, by which I, 
like the poets I have alluded to, may rise into the air and fly 
aloft in the view of men.' Poets and poems were often thus 
compared to birds, especially to swans : see Theognis 237 seq. ; 
Hor. C. ii. 20. — victor, i. e. having accomplished what I pro- 
posed : see Lucr. i. 76. — virum volitare per ora. " Ornatius 
quam ferri per ora, in ore omnium esse." Heyne. We prefer 
the interpretation given above, as more poetic and more in 
accordance with what precedes. The expression is used in a 
similar way Aen. xii. 535, to which we may add the following 
instances. Incedunt per ora vestra magnifici, Sail. Jug. 31 ; 
nitidus qua quisque per ora Cederet, Hor. S. ii. 1, 64. 

10-25. He will be the first poet that Mantua has produced, 
and when he returns to dwell there he will raise a temple in 
honour of Caesar, and celebrate games like those of Greece. 
This is all expressed with the exaggeration permitted to poetry, 



252 GEORGICS. 

and has its origin in the practice of the victors at the Olympic 
and other games raising in their native towns chapels or altars 
to their patron deities in commemoration of their success. — 
11. rediens. We must recollect that he wrote this poem at 
Naples. — Aonio vertice, i. e. from Helicon, as in Lucretius ; 
but perhaps with a reference to Hesiod. — deducam, I will lead 
down, sc. from their sacred hill. — Idumaeas palmas. Palms 
were the ornaments and emblem of victory ; Idumaeas, i. e. 
Edomite or Judaean, an epith. orn., Judaea being celebrated 
for its palm-trees. — tcmphun pouam, I will raise a temple ; like 
the Greek rldrifu. — Propter aquam. A Lucretian form : see 
Ec. viii. 87. — tardis ingens, etc. The idea in tardis properly 
belongs to errat. On the Mincius, see on Ec. vii. 12. — 16. 
In medio, sc. templi. — Caesar, i. e. statua Caesaris. — Illi (dat.), 
to or for him, in his honour. — victor: see v. 9. — Tyrio con- 
spectus in ostro, seen clad in purple, as the director of the 
games, like the praetor at Rome. — agitabo currus, 1 will drive, 
i. e. 1 Mill cause to be driven, by giving the games. — Centum. 
This is probably a def. for an indef. The critics give the 
following examples of this employment of centum. Aen. i. 4-17 ; 
iv. 199 ; Catull. lxiv. 390 ; Tibull. i. 7, 49; Hor. C. iii. 8, 13. 
— adflumina, along the banks of the river, sc. the Mincius. — 
Cuncia mihi, etc. His games would be so magnificent that 
they would attract to them all the athletes, etc. of Greece. — 
Alpheiun, Olympia in Elis, on the banks of the Alpheus. — 
lucos Molorchi, Nemea, where the shepherd Molorchus en- 
tertained Hercules when he was going to attack the Nemeaean 
lion. — crvdo caestu. The caestus, or boxing-glove, was made 
of raw hide and iron. — 21. tonsae olivae. We frankly confess 
that we do not know what is meant by this expression, which 
occurs again Aen. v. 556 and 774. Servius says that tonsae 
is " minutis foliis compositae ;" and Wagner supposes that, in 
making the garland, the larger leaves were plucked away and 
only the smaller ones left, lest it should shade the forehead too 



V. 10. Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno 
Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam 
Per gentes Italas homiuum quae clara clueret. — Lucr. i. 118. 



book in. 11-27. 253 

much. Perhaps the olive was termed tonsa on account of the 
trim, stiff form of its leaves, as opposed to those of the vine, 
the other great object of culture. — 22. Donaferam, I will offer 
sacrifices: see Aen. v. 101. — Jam nunc juvat, it delights me 
even now, sc. in imagination. — sollemnis pompas, the solemn 
or regular processions. — Vel scena, etc., he will also give dra- 
matic entertainments. In the ancient theatres the proscenium 
or stage was very narrow, as the number of actors that ap- 
peared at the same time seldom exceeded four. The scena 
was the back of it, and was of wood, of a triangular form 
having three fronts. It revolved on a pivot, so that any one 
of the fronts could be made to form the scena of the piece 
that was represented. Hence the poet says, ' the scene de- 
parts (i. e. is changed), its fronts (or sides) being turned.' — 
Purpurea intexti, etc. The aulaeum, or curtain which hung 
before the proscenium in the Roman theatre, instead of rising, 
as with us, descended when the piece was to begin, and rose 
when it was concluded. There were various figures woven 
into it, and, as it v/ould seem, after the invasion of Britain by 
Julius Caesar, the wild-looking tattooed Britons were often 
thus represented. As they rose gradually with the curtain, 
they might be said to raise it. Ovid (Met. iii. Ill) thus illus- 
trates the rising of the warriors when Cadmus had sown the 
serpent's teeth : Sic, ubi tolluntur festis aulaea t.heatris, Sur- 
gere signa solent ; primumque ostendere vultum, Cetera paul- 
latim, placidoque educta tenore Tota patent, imoque pedes in 
margine ponunt. — 26. In foribus, etc. He returns to the 
temple, to describe its ornaments, particularly the sculpture 
in gold and ivory on its doors : see on ii. 463. — pugnam Gan~ 
garidum, the battle with the Indians who dwelt on the banks 
of the Ganges. The imagination of the Romans had long 
been occupied with the idea of the conquest of the East, for 
which Julius Caesar had been making preparations when he 
perished. Our poet, in flattery of the younger Caesar, here 
supposes that he will achieve that conquest, and penetrate fur- 
ther than the great Alexander, reaching even the banks of the 
Ganges. — 27. Quirini, i. e. Caesaris. He gives him this title 
as being a second deified founder of Rome. — hie, on the other 



254 GEORGICS*. 

valve of the door. — 28. undantem hello, etc. The conquest 
of Egypt. The Nile is put for the country and its population, 
and is described as swelling and increasing its waves for war 
(bello, dat). — magnum fiuentem, -ko\v peovra. — navali surgen- 
tis, etc., a rostrated column, in commemoration of a naval 
victory. — Addam, etc. There will also be there cities con- 
quered in Asia, and victories gained over the Armenians (in- 
dicated by their mountain Niphates) and the Parthians — 
Fidentem fuga, etc. Alluding to the well-known practice of 
the Parthian cavalry to fly, and as they went at full speed to 
shower arrows on their pursuers. " How quick they wheel'd, 
and flying behind them shot Sharp sleet of arrowy showers." 
Milton, P. R. iii. 323. — Et duo, etc. In the spirit of prophecy 
he sees the extreme West, as well as the extreme East, subdued 
by Caesar. — rapta manu, seized by dint of fighting. He uses 
the verb rapio to denote the speed with which Caesar would 
conquer. — tropaea, victories ; the sign being used for the 
thing signified — Bisque triumpliatas. This does not mean 
that each people was twice triumphed over, but that he 
triumphed twice, once for each. — utroque ab litore, from 
either shore, sc. of the Ocean, i. e. the Indians on the east, 
the Cantabrians or Britons on the west shore of the circum- 
ambient Ocean. The interpreters however, in their anxiety 
to reduce all to historic accuracy, say both the shores of the 
Mediterranean and of the Ocean, referring one to Dalmatia 
or Egypt, the other to Cantabria. — 34. Stabunt, etc. He will 
place in the porticoes of this temple statues of Parian marble 
of the Trojan ancestors of the deified prince to whom it is 
dedicated. — spirantia signa, statues that are so well executed 
that they seem to breathe and live. — Assaraci proles, etc. As- 
saracus, son of Tros king of Troy, was grandfather of Anchises, 
the father of Aeneas, from whom the Julian gens at Rome 
claimed to be descended. — demissae ab Jove, sent clown (i. e. 
derived) from Jove, who was the father of Dardanus, the 
founder of the royal line of Troy. — Trojae Cyntliius auctor. 
Apollo (called Cynthius from Mount Cynthus in Delos) had, 
in conjunction with Neptune, built the walls of Troy. The 
poet introduces him here because he was regarded as his 



book in. 28-46. 255 

tutelar god by Caesar, who was even reported to be his son. 
Suet. Aug. 94 ; Cf. Aen. viii. 704. — 37. Invidia, etc. Another 
part of the ornaments of this temple (probably, as Voss thinks, 
a painting) would be the figure of Envy consigned to Tartarus, 
and witnessing there, and shuddering at, the torments of the 
various mythic criminals. — severum, awful, dreadful; like tris- 
tis, saevus. Lucretius (v. 36) has pelageque severa and severa 
silentia noctis (iv. 462), and noctis signa severa (v. 1189). The 
original meaning of severits would seem to be grave, solemn. — 
Cocyti, the river of lamentation ; from awicveiv : see Horn. 

Od. x. 514 ; Hes. Th. 740, 807 metuet, will dread, i. e. will 

tremble to behold. — tortosque Ixionis anguis, etc. Ixion, for 
attempting the chastity of Juno, was hurled to Erebus, and 
there fixed on an ever-revolving wheel; but Virgil, in this 
place, is our only authority for his being bound on it with 
snakes. — non exsuperabile saxum, sc. Sisyphi, which he was 
not able to get to the top of the hill, up which he rolled it. 
See Horn. Od. xi. 592. 

40-48. ' Such will be my future occupation ; meantime I 
will continue my poem, and sing of cattle.' — silvas saltusque, 
the woods and the lawns which they contain. — Intactos, un- 
touched, hitherto unsung by any Greek or Latin poet. — haud 
mollia. i. e. dura, difficilia. Cf. Aen. ix. 805. — Te sine, etc., 
' All my power and inspiration comes from your advice and 
encouragement.' — En age, etc. ' Come along, fling away all 
delay; the dogs are baying, the horses neighing, and the woods 
re-echoing with the joyous clamour.' We agree with those who 
take these words to be addressed by the poet to himself. The 
critics say, that by Cithaeron is meant cattle, herds of which 
pastured on that mountain, by Taygetus the dogs, and by 
Epidaurus the horses. We doubt, with Heyne, if ingenti cla- 
more could be used of oxen. — Epidaurus. Strabo alone, we 
believe, beside our poet, mentions the horses of Epidaurus: 
he classes them (viii. c. 8) with those of Argos and Arcadia. 
— 46. Mox, etc. ' I now sing of cattle, but I soon will venture 
to celebrate and transmit to posterity the warlike deeds of 
Caesar. — accingar, I will gird myself up, as the ancients did 
when about to engage in any action that required great ex- 



256 GEORGICS. 

ertion.' — dicere, i. q. ut dicam. — IS . Tithoni, etc. Tithonus, who 
Avas the son of Laomedon, was not in the direct line from which 
the Julii derived themselves : his name is therefore used here 
probably only for the sake of variety. — prima ab origine, from 
the early or remote origin or birth. Cf. iv. 286. Lucretius has 
(v. 549) prima... ab origine mundi. 

49-59. Choice of a cow for breeding : see Varro, R. R. ii. 5. 
— Seuquis, etc. General direction with respect to the breed- 
ing of horses and oxen, to attend chiefly to the qualities of the 
mother. This rule is still observed. — Olympiacae. Admiring 
the prizes at the Olympic games, i. e. being fond of chariot- 
races. — pascit, feeds, i. e. breeds. The praes. is here for the 
fut. — ad aratra, sc. trahenda. — optima, etc. He begins with 
the oxen. — torvae, stern-looking. — cui turpe capxrt, who has an 
ugly head, namely having a broad forehead, compressed cheeks, 
wide nostrils, etc. — plurima cervix, a great deal of neck, i. e. 
having it both long and thick. — Et crurum terms, etc., and 
dewlaps hanging down from the chin to the legs ; i. e. the dew- 
laps, or skin that hangs down from the neck of a cow should 
be both long and deep. — 54. Turn longo, etc., ' there should be 
no limit to the length of her sides ;' for the greater length a 
cow has, the more room she will have for her calf to grow in. 
— omnia magna, etc. ' every part about her in fact should be 
large, even the foot.' — camuris, crooked, curved. " Peregrinum 
verbum est, id est, in se redeuntibus," Macrob. vi.4. — 56. Ma- 
cidis et albo. A hendyadis ; with white spots : for working 
oxen the ancients preferred dark colours. The poet means 
therefore, ' though I know the entirely dark to be the best, 
I should not however object to those that have some spots of 
white.' — Autjuga, etc. Neither is it a bad sign if she at times 
refuses to go quietly under the yoke, and buts now and then 
with her horns ; for it shows spirit, which she will probably 
transmit to her offspring. — quaeque ardua tola, etc., ' which is 
tali and long in all dimensions, even to the tail, which should 
sweep the ground.' 

60-71. The age for breeding: in both bulls and cows it 
extends from the age of four to that of ten years. This is far 
better than the practice in some parts of England of breeding 



book in. 48-80. 257 

from yearling heifers, as it completely checks their growth : 
two years is a usual and far better age. — 60. Lucinam, i. e. 
partum. The goddess, as usual, is put for what she presides 
over.— Cetera, sc. aetas, i. e. before four and after ten years. 
— 63. Interea, in the intervening six years. — superat, abounds, 
is exuberant in. — pecuaria, i. q.pecora: see Pers. hi. 9. JPe- 
cuarium is usually the place where the pecora are. — primus, 
" i. e. quamprimum," says Heyne ; but it rather means, ' be 
the first to.' Cf. ii. 408. — Atque aliam, etc., ' keep up your 
stock by breeding.' — Optuma, etc. He is led here by his 
subject (as in i. 199) to make a general reflection on the flight 
of time carrying away the clays of youth, which, by the generc^ 
consent of mankind, are our best and happiest. — labor. See i. 
150. — Semper erunt, etc. He returns to the subject of breed- 
ing, by observing that in a man's stock there will always be 
some that he does not like, and for which he would wish to 
substitute others.— juarum corpora, i. q. quas. — Semper enim 
refice, ' always then replace them.' Enim is the Greek yap, 
which frequently has the sense of then, as afere yap avrov, 

Soph. Phil. 1054. — amissa, sc. corpora ?t subolem, etc., 'add 

select calves to your stock.' 

72-94. On the breeding of horses. Here however it is 
the sire, not the dam, that he describes, led probably by his 
poetic feeling, as he thus has an ampler field for description. 
In reality the choice of the dam is as necessary in horses as in 
any other animals. — pecori equino, i. e. equis. — quos in spent, 
etc. (iis understood,), i. e. those which you have resolved to 
breed up as stallions in order to keep up your stock. — a tene- 
ris, sc. annis. — Continuo, i. q. statim, from the very first. — 
mollia, i.e. mobilia, lithe: see ii. 389. — reponit, puts down 
again and again as he speeds along. — Primus et ire viam, etc. 
He shows courage ; he leads the others, along roads, through 
rivers, over bridges. These were of course wooden bridges, 
which are often in a dangerous state. — vanos, idle, in which 
there is no real terror. — 80. Argutum caput, a small, thin, 
well-proportioned head, the breve caput of Horace, S. i. 2, 
89. Palladius, probably borrowing the word from Virgil, has 
(iv. 13, 2) aures breves et argutas, and (ib. 8) musculosa et 



258 GEORGICS. 

arguta coipora, speaking of horses. Argutus is the part, of 
arguo, to make clear, and it is chiefly used of sound, answer- 
ing to the Greek Xtyu's. — brevis alvus, i. e. venter sicbstrictus, 
round in the body. — obesa terga, the haunches or loins fleshy. — 
81. Luxuriat, etc., ' let his spirited breast abound in muscles,' 
i. e. let his chest be broad and full. He uses the term animo- 
sus, as he presupposes such to be the character of the horse he 
is describing. — Honesti, sc. cqui, the handsome horses : see ii. 
392. — Spadices, chestnut and bay. This colour, called also by 
the Greeks (poirtKov, says Gellius (ii. 26), " exuberantiam 
splendoremque siguificat ruboris ; quales sunt fructus palmae 
arboris (i. e. dates), non admodum sole incocti, uncle spadicis 
et phoenicei nomen est. Spadica enim Dorici vocant avulsam 
a palma termitem cum fructu." In like manner the Italian 
baio (whence Bajardo, Rinaldo's horse, in the romances) and 
our bay come from fiaiov, /icus a palm-branch. — glauci, grey, 
particularly the blue-grey. — albis et gilvo, the white and dun. 
The latter colour is known to be bad, but the former is not so, 
and was not considered so by the ancients. The horses of 
Rhesus were (II. x. 437) XevKorepoi ^wvos, deieiv 2' dvefioimv 
ofxoToi; so also those of Turnus (Aen. xii. 84); and see Hor. 
S. i. 7. 8. The critics try to make an idle distinction between 
albus and candidus as applied to a horse ; making the former 
i. q. pallidas, the latter i. q. nitens, as if there could be any 
kind of white but one in a horse, except the case of an old 
grey horse, which the poet could never have meant. The 
best explanation is, that it is of the stallion the poet is speak- 
ing, for whom white is not a good colour. — 83. Turn si qua, 
etc. A further proof of the spirit of the horse, that if he 
hears the sound of arms in the distance, he becomes eager and 
impatient to join in the fray. This applies only to the trained 
war-horse, not to the young colt, as above. — micat auribus, 
he pricks up his ears, and lets them fall back again repeatedly. 
Mico is to move quickly and frequently ; hence to glitter, as 
the gleam goes and comes. The prose form here would be 
micant aures. — tremit artus. a Greek accusative for trement 
artus. — Collectum ignem. When a horse is in this state of ex- 
citement, his nostrils dilate and show the red of the interior, 



book in. 81-95. 259 

and the breath is expelled with violence, as if there was an 
internal fire.— -fremens. This is the reading of the best MSS., 
and is the word in the passage of Lucretius that he had in 
view. The other reading, premens, seems however to be as 
old as the time of Seneca, who gives it when quoting this 
passage, Ep. 95. — 86. densa juba. A thick mane denotes a 
thick crest. — et dextro, etc. This is more an indication of 
beauty than anything else, as it has nothing to do with the 
goodness of a horse. — At duplex, etc. This means, that the 
muscles should rise at each side of the spine, so as to form 
a double ridge. — cavatque tellurem, etc. The hoof must be 
strong and solid, and make an impression on the ground 
indicative of the strength and fieetness of the horse. — 89. 
Talis, etc. Such was Cyllarus, the horse of Pollux, of Amy- 
clae in Laconia (it is Castor whom Homer and the Greek 
poets celebrate for horsemanship), and the steeds given by 
Greek poets to Mars, and those of Achilles described by 
Homer. — currus. See i. 514. — Talis et ipse, etc. The Greek 
legend of the birth of the Centaur Chiron says that he was 
the offspring of the nymph Phillyra and of Kronos, who, on 
the approach of his wife Rhea, turned the nymph into a mare, 
and himself into a horse. See Mythology, p. 69. — pernix, swift, 
from per-nito, to make a great effort. — Pelion. Because the 
north of Thessaly, where Mount Pelion lay, was the scene of 
this adventure. 

95-102. The stallion, when affected by disease or old-age, 
is no longer to be employed. — abde dorno. There are two in- 
terpretations of this passage, viz. keep him at home, away 
from the mares, and employ him at various kinds of work ; or, 
send him from home, from your farm, i. e. sell him. The 
verb ab-do literally means to give or put away, and hence its 
usual signification is to hide or conceal. Horace (Ep. i. 1, 5) 
says of the retired gladiator Veianius, latet abditus agro, which 
is very like the present passage : indeed, he would seem to 
have had it in his mind, for he subjoins (v. 8) Solve senescen- 
tem mature sanus equum. Elsewhere he says of Caesar (C. iii. 
4, 38) Fessas cohortes abdidit oppidis. Suetonius (Tib. 12) 
says of Tiberius, when at Rhodes, that he Avas mediterraneis 



260 



GEORGICS. 



terris abdilus. The only instance of abdo in the sense of 
giving away is the following of Nemesian (Cyneg. 141), 
where, speaking of new-born puppies, he says, Sin vero Jiaec 
cura est melior ne forte necetur, Abdaturve domo, catulosque 
probare voluntas. Voss however contends that here also the 
phrase signifies keep at home, instead of breeding for the chace. 
With this we cannot agree. Nemesian may have misunder- 
stood our poet in this place, or, as the later writers so fre- 
quently did, he may have given to the compound a meaning 
deduced from its elements, though contrary to usage: we there- 
fore prefer the former interpretation. — 96. nee turpi ignosce 
senectae. This passage also has perplexed the critics, ancient 
as well as modern (for Servius notices the two ways of under- 
standing it) ; as nee may be joined either with turpi or with 
ignosce : the latter is, we think, to be preferred. Voss rightly 
explains it : 'Do not, out of compassion and regard for him, 
leave him with the mares when he is become past use through 
age.' Turpis is here probably merely an epithet of old-age, 
from which all beauty has departed. — ad proelia, sc. Veneris. 
— 99. Ut quondam, etc. ' His vigour is, like that of the flame of 
stubble when set on fire, devoid of all force and permanence.' 
— alias artes, other qualities. — prolem parentum. Parit autem, 
si est generosa proles, frequenter duos, Colum. vii. 6, 7 ; hence 
it is plain that proles is equivalent to our breed, strain. Wag- 
ner therefore by proles parentum understands what we would 
call the horse's pedigree, the breed of his sire and dam, a sense 
in which Servius seems also to have taken it. Voss and Jahn 
think it means the foals he has previously got; but this does 
not accord with the plural parentum, nor perhaps with the cus- 
toms of the ancients, who usually bred all their own cattle. 
— 102. Et quis, etc. It was also to be observed how they 
were affected by victory, or the reverse, in the chariot-race. It 
is well known that hunters and racers take great interest in the 
chace and the course. 

103-112. A description of a chariot-race. — Nonne vides. 



V. 103. Oi o' lifia iravres etp' 'imroiiv [lavriyas cieipav, 
YierrXrjyov 9' ifidcnv, 6fi6ic\i](rdv r eireeaaiv, 



book in. 96-115. 261 

See i. 56. — praecipiti certamine, in the headlong contest. — 
effusi carcere. See i. 512. — exultantia, bounding, palpitating. 
— pavor, anxiety. The primary idea of fear is included, as 
anxiety is caused by fear of defeat. — verbere, i. q. jiagello. — 
proni dant lora, ' bending forward give their horses the reins.' 
— vi, i<j>i. This should be taken with volat. — Jamque humiles, 
etc., ' the chariots bounding, as it were, along the ground.' — 
-sublime, adj. for adv. Cf. Ec. ix. 29; Aen. x. 664*; Lucr. vi. 97. 
— humescunt, sc. aurigae. — Tantus amor, etc., sc. in the breast 
of the horses : see v. 102. 

113-122. The invention of horsemanship — Erichthonius, 
one of the mythic kings of Attica: he was said to have had 
serpents for feet, and therefore to have first used chariots. 
See Mythology, pp. 378, 394. — insistere. Because the ancient 
charioteers drove standing. — victor, sc. in the chariot-race. — 
115. Frena, etc. The Lapiths, who frequented the Pelethronian 
wood on Mount Pelion (Strabo vii. p. 299), are here said to 
have been the first who rode on single horses. This art is by 
modern mythologists ascribed to their rivals the Centaurs, but 
it would have been absurd in the eyes of poets, who viewed 
these last as half horses themselves, to have supposed them 
mounted on horses. It was the circumstance of Thessaly 
having always been renowned for its cavalry that led the 
Greeks to ascribe the invention of horsemanship to a portion 
of its mythic inhabitants. See Mythology, p. 316. — gyros, 
yvpovs, rings. The ancients, like ourselves, rung their horses 
when breaking them, with this difference, that they mounted 
the horse and rode him round and round, while we put him at 
the end of a cord, which a man holds in the centre of the ring, 
and make him trot round and round. — equitem* There is 



'Eaav/xeviijs' ol S' wkci dieTrprjacrov 7re8ioio, 

NoV^i veuiv, raxeios' virb Se ffrepvoiai kovLtj 

"larar deipopev^, ware vetyos ije OveWa- 

Xalrat S' eppwovro pera ttvoujs avepoio' 

"Appa-ra S' aWore pev xQovl 7ri\varo 7rov\o(3oTeipy, 

"AWore v' di^amce peri)opa' rot 5' eXarrjpes 

"E(jra<jai> ev Sifpoitri' iraracrcre 8e Ovpbs eicdarov 

Ni/ajs lepevwv. Horn. II. xxiii. 362. 



some difficulty here ; for according to Gellius (xviii. 5), and 
Macrobius (vi. 9), and Philargyrius on this place, Ennius 
used eques for equus in the following verse of his Annals, 
Denique vi magna quadrupes eques atque elefanti Projiciunt 
sese. Horace also has (Epod. 16, 12) Eques sonante verbera- 
bit ungula. The only objection to this interpretation is, that 
sub armis may not seem to accord with a horse: see however 
v. 347. — gressus glomerare superbos, to canter, to go along 
doubling his forelegs under him, as may be seen in the Lon- 
don parks. — 118. Aequus uterque labor, etc. By uterque some 
(among whom is Voss) understand riding and driving ; others, 
with more reason, these two as one, and breeding for a stallion, 
which Heyne says the order of ideas in v. 95 inquires — aeque, 
etc. For both uses they look to the youth and consequent 
spirit and vigour of the horse, and care not what his pedigree 
or former exploits may have been, for if he is aged they reject 
him. — Epirum fortisque Mycenas. Epirus and Argolis were 
both famous for horses. Mycenae (one of its chief towns) is 
put for the latter. — Neptuni, etc. Though he may be descended 
from Ai'ion, the offspring of Neptune and Ceres (see Mytho- 
logy, p. 178) ; it can hardly be the first horse mentioned i. 12, 
as all horses were alike descended from him. In this verse 
ipsa, in our poet's usual manner, refers rather to Neptuni. 
The meaning is, ' though he be descended from the steed to 
whom Neptune himself gave origin.' 

123-137- Preparation of the horse and mare for breeding. 
He would seem also to include the bull and cow. — instant, sc. 
magistri, v. 118. — sub tempus, sc. admittendi. — denso pingui, 
with solid fat, i. e. flesh ; " non laxo quod quibusdam potioni- 
bus per fraudem agasones facere consueverunt." Servius. 
Pinguis, like our adj. fat, is used as a subst. Pinguedo and 
pinguetudo, Servius says, are not Latin. — pecori, the stud or 
herd. — maritum. See Ec. vii. 7. — Florentis. This is the read- 
ing of all the good MSS. and of Gellius (i. 22) : others have 
pubentis, as in Aen. iv. 514. Florentis is not merely in flower ; 
it means in their best and most nutritious state.— fluvios, i. q. 
aquam fiuvatilem. — -superesse, i. e. be sufficient for. — patrum, 
i. q.patris.—jejunia, the fasting, i.e. the want of feeding, whence 



book m. 118-146. 263 

want of vigour 129. Ipsa armenta, i.e. ipsas equas et vaccas. 

Armenia (i. e. armentam) is the pecus of v. 125. — volentes, on 
purpose. — concubitus primos. Our poet frequently, instead of 
the adv.primum, uses the adj. primus joined with a subst. Cf. 
Ec. i. 41. Such seems to be the case here. — nota voluptas, 
the well-known sense of pleasure or instinct. Notas Virginum 
poenas, Hor. C. iii. 11, 25. This is, we think, the most natural 
sense ; others understand, known from previous experience. — 
132. cursu quatiunt, shake them by galloping, i. e. gallop them 
hard. This only applies to the mares. — sole fatig ant, tire them 
in the sun. Perhaps he means this of the cows, and directs 
that they should be put under the threshing-machines; for 
mares are given the horse in spring, long before the corn is 
cut and threshed. We would not however vouch for the ac- 
curacy of the poet's information. — Cum graviter, etc. When 
the corn is threshed and winnowed — 135. Hoc faciunt, etc. 
He gives the physical reason of this practice in a figurative 
form : experience still proves the practice to be a good one. 

138-156. Care of the mothers after conception. — Rursus, 
again, on the other hand : it is merely a word of transition. — 
exactis mensibus, when some months are past, when they are 
heavy in foal or calf. — Mas, sc. vaccas. — gravibus, etc., ' pull 
the yokes for the loaded wains.' — Non saltu, etc. He now 
passes to the mares. Saltu superare viam is, says Servius, 
" quod solet fieri cum pascunt pedibus impeditis." This can 
hardly be the meaning ; it is rather, i they bound off the road 
along which they were going.' The following et and que 
seem to be disjunctive. — rapaces, i. q. rapidos.—14?3. vacuis, 
quiet, tranquil, where there are only themselves ; or, as Ser- 
vius renders it, " apertis." — pascunt, sc. magistri. Most MSS., 
but not the best, read pascant. See Ec. i. 54. — plena Jlumina. 
That they might get sufficient water without any difficulty. 
— muscus ubi, sc. sit. As moss does not usually grow on the 
banks of streams, he perhaps means to indicate here the mus- 
cosi fontes (Ec. vii. 45) and the streams from them. These 
were often in the neighbourhood of caverns. — tegant, may 
shelter them. — saxea umbra, i. e. the shade of a rock.— procu- 
let, lies, extends itself. — 146. Est lucos, etc. A caution about 



264 GEORGICS. 

?he time of feeding cattle, on account of the gadfly — Silari. 
The Silarus is a river of Lucania, which empties itself into the 
gulf of Paestum. Mount Alburnus lies to the south of it. 
Plurimus. See on Ec. vii. 49. — volitans, i. q. volans. It is here 
a subst. Cf. iv. 16 — cui, a monosyllable here. — oestrum. The 
Greeks called dlarpos the insect which the Latins named asi- 
lus. This is all that the poet can mean. Vertere vocantes is 
i. q. versum vocant- -acerba, i. e. acerbe, shrilly. Lucretius 
also uses this adj. as an adv., acerba tuens, v. 34: see also 
Aen. ix. 794. — -furit, rebellows, the furor of the oxen being 
transferred to the sky. — sicci Tanagri. The Tanager, which 
runs to the east of Mount Alburnus, is a feeder of the Silarus. 
The smaller streams of Italy are nearly dry in the heats of 
summer. — 152. Hoc monstro, with this portent, this noxious 
animal. — Inachiae juvencae, i. e. of Io, the daughter of Ina- 
chus, whom Jupiter turned into a heifer, and Juno sent a 
gadfly to torment her. See Mythology, p. 406. — pestem, tor- 
ment or destruction. — meditata, may be i. q. meditans, as the 
verb is deponent ; but it may be taken here in the past ; 

having meditated or designed.- -Hunc guogue Arcebis, 

' you shall keep him also from your cattle.' Arcebis, for arce, 
a fut. for an imperat., as in most languages. — nam mediis, etc. 
' it is in the middle of the day that he is most virulent.' — pecori. 
For the hiatus here, see on Ec. iii. 6.— trmenta, i. q. the pre- 
ceding peciis. — Sole recens orto, etc. ' In order to avoid him, 
pasture your kine early in the morning or late in the evening.' 
— lucentibus astris. Here the stars are said to lead on the 
night ; elsewhere they are made to follow her. 

157-178. Rearing of calves. — Post partum, etc. When the 
cows have calved, the care of them ceases, and is transferred 

to the calves Continuo, etc. The first thing to be done is 

to brand them : see i, 263. — notas et nomina gentis inurunt. 
We confess we do not clearly understand these words. Notas 



149. Oi v' 6<pef3ovro fiera fieyapov, /3o'es ws ayeXalat, 
Tas [lev r aloXos otorpos e(popjxr]9eis edovrjaev 
'Qpy hv eiapivy, ore r fj/iaTa /.icticpd Ttekovrai. 

Horn. Od. xxii. 299. 



book in. 146-174. 265 

et nomina seems to be a hendyadis, as Aen. iii. 444, for notas 
nominum : but what is gentis ? We should have expected do- 
mini ; for we nowhere read that it was the practice to mark 
cattle with their breed or pedigree. — 155. inurunt, as the 
marks were made with a hot iron. — Et quos, etc. The critics 
observe that there is no verb to which et may be joined. We 
think, with Jahn, that the poet mentally supplied signant, 
which expresses the sense of the preceding verse. — submittere : 
see v. 73 ; and Ec. i. 45. — habendo : see i. 3. — arts servare 
sacros, those that should be reared for sale to those who 
wished to offer them in sacrifice. We do not think, with 
Heyne, that it is only a more decorous way of saying, ' sell 
them to the butcher.' — aui scindere, etc. The other, and prin- 
cipal use for which oxen were reared, namely drawing the 
plough, and of course the cart : v. 170, seq. — horrentem fractis 
glebis, ' bristling up with broken sods.' — 161. Cetera, etc., ' let 
all the rest be left to feed at liberty ; but begin at once to handle 
those that you intend for draught.' — pascuntur. He uses the 
praes. indie, as he merely wishes to indicate the usual prac- 
tice. — studium atque usum agrestem, i. e. studium usus agres- 
tis. — viam insiste, begin, set about. Insisto, with the ace. ; also 
Aen. vi. 563 ; vii. 689 ; xi. 573. — -faciles, sc. ad domandum : 
see i. 266. — mobilis, flexible, before they have acquired any 
fixed habits. — 166. circlos, i.e. circulos, like periclum, vinclum, 
saeclum. This contraction chiefly takes place in neuters. — 
torquibus, that is, the circlos of v. 166. — aptos, i. e. aptatos, 
matched. — gradum conferre, to step together, as they will 
have to do in draught. — illis, by them. — rotae inanes, empty 
carts. Rotae for currus, Aen. xii. 671 . — summo, etc., 'just leave 
their trace on the ground,' as being so light. — Post, etc., ' then 
let them be put under loaded carts.' — instrepat, creak, as wooden 
axles do. — temo aereus, the pole, which was plated and fast- 
ened with iron, in ancient times with copper. — orbis, the 
wheels. — 174. pubi indomitae, the calves before they are 
broken in. — vescas, small, meagre, as in Ovid, Fast. iii. 446, 
v esc a que parva vocant. Cf. iv. 131 ; and see Bentley on Hor. 
S. i. 2, 129. Doederlein (Synon. iv. p. 168) says, that as vascus 
comes from vacate, so vescus comes from vagari, and that it 

N 



signifies weak, vacillating, moved by every breath of air.— fru- 
menta sata, i. e. growing corn — 176. nee tibi fetae, etc. ' Nor, 
as our forefathers used to do, milk your cows after they have 
calved, for domestic purposes, but let the whole of the milk go 
to the calves.' 

179-208. The rearing and training of horses Sin ad bella, 

etc. The ancients did not use horses for agricultural purposes, 
or for ordinary draught ; they either rode them, or put them 
under carriages, both which uses are here indicated by the 
highest and most honourable of each kind. — bella turmasque, 
for the cavalry-service in war. Turma is a troop. — studium, 
sc. est tibi. — Aid Alphea, etc., or for the chariot-races of the 
Circus and other public places, indicated by the Olympic 
games, the most celebrated of all : see v. 19. The races were 
there run in the Altis or sacred grove of Jupiter. — 182. labor, 
task, as implying some degree of toil and effort. — anhnos, etc., 
' to witness what we might term parades and reviews, not actual 
conflicts ;' to grow accustomed to the shouts of the troops, the 
glitter of arms, and the sound of clarions and trumpets. — trac- 
tuque, etc. The que here is equivalent to aid ; for it is of an- 
other horse, namely the carriage-horse, that he is speaking. 
— gementem, creaking, in the draught (tractu), like instrepat, 
v. 173. — -ferre, to bear, to stand, as we say.— frenos audire, to 
hear (without starting) the rattling and ringing of bridles, 
which were usually hung with little bells. — plausce. sonitum, 
to delight in being clapped on the neck. — primo, sc. tempore. 
— 188. Audeat. This is the original reading of the Med., and 
is also that of other good MSS. ; the common reading is au- 
diat: it is for faciat, with the idea of courage included. — in 
vicem, from time to time. — det ora, etc., ' let him suffer soft 
halters to be put on his head.' — Invalidus, i. e. dum est inva- 
lidus. — inscius aevi, ignorant by reason of his youth — At, 
etc., ' but when he has completed three years, and is entering 
on his fourth.' — accesserit. Jahn and Wagner prefer acceperit, 
which is the reading of the Rom. and one other MS. — Carpere 
gyrum, etc.: see v. 115. He was then to be broken and 
taught his paces. — Compositis, regular. — sinuet, etc. This ex- 
presses the manner in which a horse bends and gathers up his 



book in. 176-199. 267 

forelegs in the manege. — 193. Sit laboranti similis. Though 
the rider does not press or distress him, yet he appears to 
labour a little. — turn cursibus. After some time he may be 
put to his full speed, challenging as it were the wind itself 
to contend with him. — Turn vocet, i. e. provocet. This is the 
reading of the Med. and other good MSS. — ceu liber habenis. 
Though the rider is on his back, he will go with as great ve- 
locity as if he carried no weight. — 196. Qualis, etc. He 
flies along the plain, hardly leaving his footprints on it, with 
the same velocity as the north-wind. — Hyperboreis. For this 
fabled people, who dwelt in the extreme North, see Mytho- 
logy, p. 34. — densus, strong, with all his force, as it were, con- 
densed and concentrated. — Scythiae hiemes, etc. He first meets 
Scythia, where he disperses its wintry clouds. — arida. He calls 
the clouds of the Scythian winter thus, because they shower 
snow, not rain. — turn segetes, etc. As he advances further 
south, and comes to the cultivated regions, the corn-fields, etc. 
feel his influence. — campi natantes. In Lucretius, from whom 
(v. 489 ; vi. 404, 1140) he has taken these words, they always 
signify the sea ; and though Virgil (ii.437) uses undans as we 
do our waving, we cannot agree with Heyne, that campi na- 
tantes is here " segetes undantes et fluctuantes, a similitudine 
maris fluctus volventis ;" for that effect is to be produced by 
the wind. Moreover, readers of that day were probably too 
familiar with the verses of Lucretius to allow of one of his pecu- 
liar phrases being diverted from its original meaning. If critics 
therefore, on account of v. 200, will not allow it to be the sea, 
we may suppose it to denote the lakes. They seem however 
not to be aware that the poet had two conjoint similes of 
Homer in view. — 199. Lenibus Jtabris. With gentle blasts, 
i.e. those which come first (for the wind does not rush with all 
its force at once), and which suffice to bend the standing corn 

V. 196. Kivi)9t] S' ayopr/, ws tcvfiara paicpa 6a\aafft)s 
ILovtov 'ltcapioio, rd fiev Eiipo's re No'ros re 
"Qpop', eTTcu^as Trarpbs Aibs e/c vecpeXdiov. 
[Qs S' ore Kivi](Jei ZeQvpos fiaOi) Xtjiov eXQotv, 
Aa'/3por, CTraiyi^uv, eiri r i)[xvei. ci(JTaxveaaiv. 

Horn. II. ii. 144. 
n2 



268 GEORGICS. 

and crisp the surface of the water. — 199. horrescunt, they begin 
to be roughened. — summaeque. We would understand here a 
second turn ; that, as the wind increases in force, it agitates 
the trees of the forest, and raises billows on the sea, and 
drives them to the shore. — sonorem. A Lucretian word, i. q. 
sonus, sonitus. — urgent, sc. se. — longi jluctus, long waves ; 
which denotes the force of the winds : not as Heyne renders 
it, " qui longe, e longinquo, veniunt." — Ille sc. Aquilo — fuga, 
in his flight, i. e. as he flies: see v. 142. — 202. Hie, sc. equus. 
The horse, such as has been just described. — vel ad Elei, etc., 
will make a running horse, who may contend in the chariot- 
race at the Olympic games in Elis, and of course at any other 
race-ground. — spatia : see i. 513. — spumas cruentas. This de- 
notes the spirit of the horse, who pulls so hard, that his mouth 
is cut by the bit in the efforts of the driver to hold him in. — 
Belgica vel molli, etc. The essedum was a war-chariot used 
by the Britons ; it is only when speaking of them that Caesar 
mentions it. After his invasion of the island, the essedum was 
introduced at Rome, where, from its lightness and speed, it 
became quite fashionable and was even driven by ladies : see 
Cic. Phil. ii. 24; Ad Att. vi. 1 ; Prop. ii. 1, 86; 23, 43 ; Ov. 
Am. ii. 16, 49; Ex Pont. ii. 10, 34. As we drive thorough-bred 
horses under our carriages, so the Romans might have driven 
their high-bred horses under the esseda ; and this is probably 
the simple meaning of this passage. The critics however say 
that it is the Belgic war-chariot that is meant, for which this 
horse would, from his spirit and fleetness, be as fit as for the 
running-chariot. — molli, i. q. mobili, says Philargyrius (Cf. ii. 
389), yielding, docile ; to denote that he is easy to manage. — 
205. Turn demum, etc. ' When they are broken, feed them well 
and get them into condition.' — crassa, thick, strong ; not, as 
Heyne says, " quae crassos reddit."— -farragine. It was the 
custom of the ancients to sow altogether spelt, barley, vetches, 
etc., which they cut and gave to their cattle : it was called 
farrago, as the far or spelt predominated in it : see Festus, 
s.v. Varro,R.R.i.315; Colum. ii. 11,8; Plin.xviii. 16, 41.— 
ante domandum, i. e. si sinis ante domandum, before they are 
broken : see Zumpt, § 666.~-prensi, When taken into hands. 



book nr. 199-220. 269 

Cf. i. 285. — Verbera lenta, etc., 'they will neither bear the 
flexible whip nor obey the bit.' 

209-241. Horses and bulls should be kept apart from the 
females, on account of the ill effects of desire. — caeci, secret. 
This adj. properly belongs to stimulos. — Atque ideo tauros, etc. 
He confines himself here to the bulls, omitting the horses en- 
tirely. — relegant, sc. magistri. Relego is a term of Roman 
law, signifying to banish ; that is, to assign a particular place 
of abode, or to name a distance from the city within which 
the banished should not come. See Cic. in Vat. 33. — sola, i. e. 
in which there are no kine. — oppositum, opposed between him 
and the kine. — et, i. q. ant. — lata. That he may not be able 
to cross it. — Aut intus, etc. If they cannot remove him in 
that manner, they keep him shut up at home. — satura, i. q. 
saturata. Heyne says, " plena, quae saturant." — 215. Carpit 
enim vires, etc. ' For the female gradually consumes their 
strength and wastes them away by being in their sight.' — 
writ. Love and desire are always compared with fire and 
flame. Urit me Glycerae nitor, Hor. C. i. 19, 5.—videndo 
(pass.), by being seen : see ii. 239, 250. — et saepe, often too. 
— subigit, incites, sc. secretly and gradually. — 219. Pascitur, 
etc. The heifer feeds unconcerned, as it were, in the wood. 
Heyne and Wagner think this line idle and superfluous, and 
that it had better be away. Our view of it is totally opposite, 
as it appears to us to add greatly to the picture : it is besides 
in every MS. — Sila. All the MSS. have silva, but in the 
Med. there is a clot over the v which is equivalent to our dele. 
Servius also says that some read Sila. Heyne therefore, whom 
all the later editors have followed, has admitted it into the 
text. We however are inclined to think that silva is the true 
reading, and that Sila has been introduced from Aen. xii. 715. 
There is no reason why any particular place should be named 
here. — Bli. Cf. Aen. xii. 720 seq. — 220. altemantes, sc. vices, 
i. e. vicissim. — lavit, bathes, which ive use in exactly the same 
sense. — obnixos, i. q. obnitentes, pushing against. — longus. 
This is the reading of the Med. MS. and of Macrobius (vi. 4) ; 
the common reading is magnus, as in Aen. x. 437. Longus 
seems here to be nearly i. q. longinquus, distant, i. e. lofty. 



270 GEORGICS. 

Ex aethere longo, Aen. vii. 288. — 224. Nee mos, etc. ' Nor is 
it usual for these rivals to herd together.' — stabulare, instead 
of the more usual stabulari, as Aen. vi. 286. — exsulat, goes 
into exile. This (like relego, v. 212) is a legal term. Exile 
was a voluntary act, by which a man abandoned his civic 
rights, quitting his country and becoming a subject of another 
state ; and the poet, we may observe, is accurate in his em- 
ployment of the two terms here and in v. 212. — ignominiam, 
sc. suam. — amoves, sc. juvencam. — excessit, he has departed 
from. The whole of this passage brings to our view Camillus 
or some other old Roman going into exile, galled at the suc- 
cess of his enemy or competitor, and looking back on the 
Capitol as he departed. In all probability the poet had some 
such picture in his mind. — 229. inter Dura, etc. The con- 
struction is, jacet pernox cubili instrato inter dura saxa. — per- 
nox. This is the reading of the Palat. and three other MSS. 
of the 2nd and 3rd Aldine editions, and of the Schol. on Juv. 
vii. 10. It is also noticed in the Dresden Servius. The read- 
ing of all the other MSS. is pernix, which has been retained 
by Voss and Jahn. " Pernix" says the latter, " est is qui 
pernititur ad scopum propositum et in consilio assequendo 
pertinax est." — instrato, " h. 1. non strato, cubili in nudo solo." 
Heyne. But Wakefield (on Lucr. v. 985) observes that it is 
the part, of insternere, and never signifies non stratus ; he 
therefore thinks, and we agree with him, that it should be 
understood here as in that place of Lucretius, i. e. as ' spread 
on.' He joins with it the following frondibus hirsutis, in which 
he is clearly wrong. — tentat sese, makes trials of himself. — 
irasci in cornua discit. These words, which have perplexed 
the critics, are not perhaps very difficult of solution : the 
cause of their perplexity is that they suppose the horns to be 
his own, whereas they are those of his rival, against which he 
learns to direct his anger and force (see v. 222), by practising 
against the trunk of a tree. The words which they quote 
from Aen. x. 725, surgentem in cornua cervum, have a dif- 
ferent sense, as they express that the deer is growing up, 
growing as it were into horns. It is possible that the poet 
may have had in view the palus against which gladiators and 



book in. 224-250. 271 

young soldiers were made to exercise their weapons, in order 
to acquire skill in the vise of them. See Juv. vi. 247 ; Vege- 
tius i. 11. — 233. ventos, etc. He rushes with his head down 
and at full speed against the empty air, as if his rival were be- 
fore him. — sparsa, etc., ' and throws up the sand with his heels,' 
as if he was actually preparing to engage. — Signa movet, he 
marches : a well-known Roman military term. — oblitum, who 
has forgotten him, and is therefore taken by surprise. — 238. 
ex alto, from the deep ; for the further from the shore, the 
deeper. — sinum, a curved, bellying wave. — ipso Monte, a (not 
the) mountain itself. — subvectat, heaves up. This is the read- 
ing of the Med., Rom., and other of the best MSS., and is 
adopted by Jahn : the common reading, subjectat, is far less 
forceable. 

242-283. Description of the rage and fury of desire in va- 
rious animals. — adeo, in fact : see Ec. i. 12 — pecudes, cattle, 
tame animals, as opposed to the ferarum of the preceding 
verse.— -pictae, variegated, speckled ; the variae of Lucretius. 
Virgil would seem to be the first who applied this epithet to 
birds : he repeats it, Aen. iv. 425. — erravit. An aorist, as 
also dedere, v. 247. — informes, shapeless, ugly : see Ec. ii. 25. 
— 249. male : see i. 448. — erratur, one wanders, one rambles. 
An impers. — 250. Nonne vides. A common Lucretian form. 
— pertentet, thrills. — si notas odor, etc. According to Heyne, 
i. q. si aurae odorem attidere. This however is so very violent 
a hypallage, that we rather think that aura has here the same 
meaning as in Hor. C. ii. 8, 24, namely the smell which pro- 
ceeds from female animals when in a state of desire. Odor 
might be the smell, the sense of smelling which conveys its 
impressions to the mind. We confess that we can give no 
instance of odor used in this sense.— -jam, when they are in that 



V. 237. 'Qs S' or ev alyiaXqi jro\vjj%ei Kv/xa OaXaGcrjs 
"Of/WT e7ra(T(TVTepov Zetyvpov vTroKivijGavTos' 
Tlovr^j jxev to. Ttputra Kopvaaerai, avrap eireira 
Xepery prjyvv/xevov fieyuXa flpefiei, afirftl Se r aicpas 
TLvprov eov Kopucpovrai, a.7rowrvei 8' a\6s ayyj\v. 

Horn. II. iv. 422. 



272 GEORGICS. 

state. — 252. verbera saeva. By this perhaps is meant beating 
the horse in the stable in order to terrify him and make him 
remain quiet. No one would ever dream of beating a run- 
away horse in order to stop him, unless he wished to knock 
him down. — objecta, opposed in his way. — conreptos, etc. In 
all the MSS. but one the reading is conreptosque, which Voss, 
Wakefield and Jahn adopt. The Aldine and other early edi- 
tions omit the que, as also do Heyne, Wagner and Forbiger. 
Jahn says that the poet wished to express two kinds of streams, 
namely those that merely opposed their depth and breadth, and 
those that also opposed their force and impetuosity. This 
however is somewhat too refined. — unda, in their current ; or 
perhaps, by their waters. — monies, large masses of earth. — 
255. Sabellicus : an epith. ornans. Samnium, as being moun- 
tainous and woody, abounded in all kinds of wild beasts. — 
prosubigit, prelusively tramples and kneads the ground with 
his fore-feet. — -fricat arbore costas, he rubs his sides with a 
tree, instead of against a tree ; the metre obliging him to use 
the abl. for the dat. — ad vulnera, against wounds. — 258. Quid 
juvenis, etc., sc. facit. He refers to the story of Hero and 
Leander, to prove the power of love over mankind. — >Nocte 
caeca, in the dense darkness of night. — serns, i. e. sero. — Porta 
caeli, the gate of heaven, i. e. heaven. As the thunder and 
lightning were regarded by the poets as the weapons of Ju- 
piter, whose abode was the heaven, they represented them as 
issuing out of the gate of his palace. — reclamant, rebellow. — 
miseri parentes, i. e. the idea of his parents ; for we are not to 
suppose that they were standing on the Hellespont while he 
was swimming across. — Nee, etc. Nor the idea of Hero. — 
super, after him, in consequence of his death. — crudeli funere, 
by a bitter untimely death. This is a favourite phrase with 
our 'poet : see Ec. v. 20 ; Aen. iv. 308, and elsewhere. — 264. 
lynces Bacclii variae, the spotted lynxes which were fabled 
to draw the car of Bacchus. — quid, sc. faciunt. — 266. Scilicet. 
This word is best rendered here by our emphatic but. — ante 
omnis, sc. furores. — mentem, i. e. hanc mentem, this disposition. 
— quo tempore Glauci, etc. Glaucus, the son of Sisyphus, 
who dwelt at Potniae in Boeotia, kept his mares from the 



book in. 252-278. 273 

horses in order that they might be in proper condition for run- 
ning. Venus, to punish him, rilled them with such fury that 
they tore him to pieces. Hygin. 250. — 268. mails, with their 
jaws, i. e. with their teeth. — quadrigae, i. e. equae. — trans 
Gargara, etc. It is, as we have often observed, the practice 
of our poet first to state a thing generally, and then to give 
particular instances : here however he reverses the practice. 
Gargara is a part of the range of Mount Ida in Asia Minor : 
see on i. 103. The Ascanius is a river issuing from the lake 
of that name in Bithynia. — 271. Continuoque, and they then, 
after they have thus run themselves out of wind. The poet 
gives now a strange opinion of the ancients, that mares were 
occasionally impregnated by the wind. Homer appears to 
allude to it, II. xvi. 150; xs. 222. Aristotle (H. A. vi. 18) 
says it used to happen in Crete, Varro (R. R. i. 19) in Spain, 
and Columella, who was a native of that country, speaks of it 
(vi. 27) as an undoubted fact. So general was the belief in 
it, that Lactantius (iv. 12) employs it as an illustration of the 
miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary. — 276. depressas 
convallis. The three spondees terminating the verse seem to 
contradict the rule of the sound being an echo to the sense. 
— non, Eure, tuos, etc. The neque would appear to be con- 
junctive, with the idea of negation continued from the non. 
The sense is, ' not to thy rising and that of the sun.' — In Bo- 
rean, etc., but to the north or the south. — Caurum. Flabit ab 
occasit'l solstitiali et occidentali latere septentrionis, a Graecis 
dictus Argestes, Plin. xviii. 34, 77. " Caurum pro Corum, 
sicut saurex pro sorex, caidis pro colts." Servius. The form 
with the diphthong is however probably the elder, for Claudius 
is older than Clodius. — pluvio frigore, i. q. frigida pluvia. — 
278. Hie demum, here in fine, i. e. at this time, when the mare 
is horsing. Hie is the reading of the best MSS. ; others have 
hinc. — hippomanes, horse-rage ; the pale yellow fluid which 
passes from a mare at that season (Cf. Tibul. ii. 4>, 58), of 
which the smell (aura, v. 251) incites the horse. — vero nomine. 
Because the bit of flesh which was said to be on the forehead 
of the new-born foal, and which the mare was supposed to 
swallow, was called by the same name (see Aen. iv. 515), and 

n5 



274? GEORGICS. 

also a plant in Arcadia : Theocr. ii. 48. With respect to the 
former Hippomanes, Pliny, who detailed truth and falsehood 
with equal faith, says (viii. 42) that it grows on the foal's 
forehead, is of the size of a dried fig (caricd) and of a black 
colour, and that if the mare does not swallow it immediately 
she will not let the foal suck her. Aristotle (H. A. viii. 24) 
says this is merely an old-wives' tale : he mentions however 
the ntoXiov, or bit of livid flesh which we call the Foal's Bit, 
and which he says the mare ejects before the foal. — Miscue- 
runt, sc. cum eo. 

284-294. A transition to the subject of sheep and goats. 
— circwnvectamur, I go round and inspect. This verb would 
seem to be used properly of a proprietor riding round and 
inspecting his grounds and stock. Non ego circum Me Sa- 
tumiano vectari rum caballo...narro, Hor. S. i. 6, 58. — armen- 
tis, for large cattle. — Superat, i. q. superest : see on Ec. ix. 27. 
— curae, sc. pastoris. — agitare, to manage. He uses the fre- 
quentative to express the variety of the shepherd's cares. — 
Hie labor, sc. est. Cf. Aen. vi. 129.— -fortes, stout; an ordinary 
epithet of husbandmen. — Nee sum, etc. ' nor does the difficulty 
of the task which I have undertaken escape me.' — ea, these 
matters. There is no antecedent to this pronoun, but it may 
be considered as included in v. 287. — verbis vineere, to over- 
come them (i. e. the difficulties which they present) by words 
or language. — magnum, great, i. e. difficult. — hunc honorem, 
this honour, i. e. the grace and splendour of poetry. — 291. de- 
serta. He seems to use this word merely as a variation of the 
Lucretian avia. — qua nulla, etc. As being the first, at least 



V. 286. Nunc age, quod superest cognosce, et clarius audi. 
Nee me anion fallit, quam sint obscura, sed acri 
Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor, 
Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem 
Musarum, quo nunc instinctus, mente vigente 
Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante 
Trita solo ; juvat integros accedere fontes 
Atque haurire ; juvatque novos decerpere flores. 
Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam, 
Unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae. — Lucr. i. 920. 



book in. 284-305. 275 

Latin, poet who wrote on the subject of agriculture. — Casta- 
liam, i. e. ad Castaliam, the fount on Helicon. — molli clivo, on 
the gentle declivity : see Ec. ix. S.—devertitur (verb, reflect.), 
turns aside, out of the beaten track. — Nunc, etc. He incites 
himself, calling on the goddess of shepherds to aid : see ii. 4. 
295-321. The treatment of sheep and goats during the 
winter. — Incipiens edico. As he has said magno ore sonan- 
dum, he now adopts the language of authority, and issues his 
edict like the prsetor at Rome. Cf. Hor. Ep. i. 19, 10. — molli- 
bus, soft, i. e. warm. — carpere ovis, that the sheep should feed, 
i. e. be fed. — dum mox frondosa, etc. until the warm weather, 
which brings leaves and grass, comes back. The general divi- 
sion of the year into aestas and hiems has been noticed. Mox 
seems to denote that they will not have to remain long in the 
sheds. The cold weather, we must recollect, does not begin 
in Italy till toward the end of December. — Stemere, i. e. te 
sternere, to bed them well with straw and (or) fern. — glacies, 
i. e. gelu. The adj. frigida is idle and superfluous. — scabi- 
em, the scab, which was caused by the wet and cold, v. 441. 
— podagras, i. e. clavos, a disease of the feet. HoSaypa, though 
usually restricted to gout, signifies any disease of the feet; 
for a sheep could not have the gout, properly speaking. — 
300. hinc digressns, going hence ; quitting the sheepcotes and 
going to those of the goats, as if he was inspecting his farm : 
see Cato, R. R. %—jabeo, I desire or direct. — Arbuta, branches 
and leaves of the arbutus. — -Jluvios recentes, i.e. "aquam statim 
haustam," Servius, fresh water : see v. 126. — Et stabula, etc., 
and let their cotes face the south, that they may have the sun 
and be protected against the cold northern blasts. — cum fri* 
gidus olim, etc. ' This, I say, is to be done especially in the 
month of February, when the sun is in Aquarius and the 
rains prevail.' — extremo anno. The Roman year anciently 
began in March, whence January and February were vulgarly 
regarded as the end of the year, as they really are with respect 
to the seasons. — 305. Hae, sc. capellae. — leviore, sc. quam oves. 
— usus erit, sc. earum, they are not less useful. — quamvis, 
etc., ' although the sheep's wool takes a rich purple die, and 
therefore fetches a large price.' — magno, sc pretio. — mute?itur t 



276 GEORGICS. 

sc. pernintentur, vendantur. Lactens porcus aere mutandus 
est, Colum. vii. 9. — 308. Densior hinc soboles. The advantages 
of the goats. In the first place they more frequently bear twins. 
— hinc, i. q. ab his. — largi copia lactis. The adj. properly 
belongs to copia — Quam magis....(tam) magis, etc. 'The 
more the milkpail foams when the udder has been exhausted, 
the more the joyous streams will flow from the pressed teats ;' 
i. e. the supply of milk will be constant, they will always yield 
the same quantity. — Nee minus interea, etc. Besides the long 
beards and hair of the buck-goats are used for cloaks, bed- 
clothes and other coverings for soldiers and sailors. — tondent, 
sc.pastores. — Cinyphii. Epith. orn. The Cinyps was a river 
of Libya in the district of Tripolis: goats abounded on its 
banks. — 315. Pascuntur, etc. Further, they are kept with 
little expense, for they browse in the woods and on the hills, 
and they come home of themselves. Pascuntur silvas. The 
object is put in the accus. as in the Greek: see iv. 181. — 
Lycaei. A particular for a general term: see on Ec. x. 15. — 
rubos : see Ec. iii. 89. — dumos : see Ec. i. 77. — suos, sc. par- 
vos. — et gravido, etc., i. e. they also bring home plenty of milk. 
— Ergo, etc. 'As then they are so very profitable, you should 
not grudge the little care that they may occasionally require.' 
— Quo minor, etc. By so much as they have in general less 
need than sheep, for instance, of the herdsman's care. — cvrae 
mortalis, of the care of men. — illis egestas, i. e. egent.—virgea 
pabula, i. e. arbuta, v. 300. — nee tota, etc., and give them as 
much hay as they may require during the winter. 

322-338. Treatment of sheep and goats in the summer. — 
aestas, the warm weather. That it is the spring that is meant 
is plain from the mention of the west-winds. — utrumque gre- 
gem, i. e. the sheep and goats. — mittel. This is the original 
reading of the Med. and of the 1VISS. used by Ursinus ; all 
the rest have mittes. In this last case aderit must be under- 
stood after aestas. — Luciferi, etc., at dawn, before sunrise. — 
Carpamus, i. e. carpere faciamus greges. Some understand it 
Carpamus viam ad rura ; but, as Wagner observes, in this 
case the subst. should be expressed after carpere. — canent, sc. 
rore. There is no tautology in the next line, for the whole 



book in. 308-339. 277 

passage is i. q. gramina canent rore qui est, etc — 327. Inde, 
then. — quarta hora, i. e. about nine or ten o'clock, according 
to our mode of reckoning. The Romans divided the space 
between sunrise and sunset into twelve civil hours. In April 
therefore the fourth hour answered to our ten, later to nine, 
and so on. — sitim collegerit, will have caused the flocks to 
thirst. — querulae: see on i. 378. — rumpent, burst them, as it 
were: see i. 49. Et assiduo ruplae lectore columnae, Juv. 
i. 13. — arbusta, the trees in general: see Ec. i. 39. Pliny 
(xi. 27, 32) says the cicadae are nee in campis nee in frigidis 
aid umbrosis nemoribus, where by campis he must mean the 
open country without trees, for we have often heard them in 
the trees in Lombardy.— -jubeto, desire them, as if they had 
sense and reason, or rather perhaps their keepers. — Currentem 
ilignis canalibus. These words should be joined, for it was 
the custom in Italy (as in the East, see Gen. xxx. 38) for the 
shepherds to draw the water and pour it out into wooden or 
stone troughs for their flocks. — 331. Aestibus mediis, in the 
noontide heat. — exquirere. Wither jubeto is to be understood, 
as we think is the case, or this infin. and the following dare 
are to be taken in the Greek manner as imperatives, a thing 
of which we believe there is no other example in the Latin 
language; for the apparent infinitives in Aen. ii. 707; iii- 405, 
are imperatives of reflected verbs. This might induce us to 
regard with some complacency Wakefield's correction of jic- 
bebo for jubeto, v. 329. — antiquo robore, with antique, old 

timber : see Flora sacra umbra, with a sacred shade. — 

accubet, like procubet, v. 145. There the verb is used of the 
shade, here of the wood. — tenuis aquas : see i. 92. — dare: see 
on v. 330. — vesper, evening ; not the evening-star : see v. 324. 
— roscida luna. The moon was regarded as the origin of dew: 
see Mythology, p. 61 — alcyonen: see i. 398. — acalanthida. 
Supposed to be the same as the Acanthis or Carduelis, the 
goldfinch. The birds, we may observe, are put for their 
song. 

339-348. A description of the mode of life of the African 
herdsman. — raris habitata, etc. Heyne explains this passage 
thus : " dixit pro tectis mapalium raris, sparsis passim per 



278 GEORGICS. 

agros, non in vicis collectis." Perhaps there is no necessity 
for supposing the poet to have expressed himself in so artificial 
a manner : he may have only meant to intimate that the ma- 
palia were (as they are) tents, -whose covering is thin as com- 
pared with that of houses. The mapalia were, according to 
Cato (ap. Fest. s. v.), quasi cohortes rotundae, and he terms 
them casae. Sallust (Jug. IS) says, aedificia Numidarum 
agrestium, quae mapalia Mi vocant, oblonga, incurvis lateribus 
iecta, quasi navium carinae sunt. It is however quite appa- 
rent that it is of the moveable mapalia or tents that Virgil is 
speaking ; and at the present day, as Mr. Drummond Hay in- 
forms us (Western Barbary, p. 25), " the form of the tents is 
somewhat similar to that of a boat with its keel upwards." 
Mapalia is the same as magalia, Aen. i. 421 ; iv. 259, though 
the quantity of the first syllable is different. They are pro- 
bably derived from the Hebrew or Phoenician magur, which 
seems properly to signify a tent. Shaw (Trav. in Barb. i. 220) 
says that at the present day the mapalium is called Beit-esh- 
Shar, 'house-of-skins.' — 341 . ex ordine, i. e. day after day. — in, 
into, i. e. advancing further and further every day. — hospitiis, 
fixed abodes, where they might be entertained. — Armentarius, 
herdsman, properly neatherd, fiovicoXos. — agit. Et fert is un- 
derstood. Pliny says (v. 3) that they put their tents on carts. 
— Larem, the househcld-god ; here perhaps it stands for the 
household stuff and utensils. — Amyclaeum. — Cressam: epith. 
orn : see v. 89. Cressam is i. q. Cressiam, Cretensem. Cressa 
corona, Ov. A. A. i. 758. — 346. patriis armis, his national 
arms, i. e. such as the Roman soldiers always used. — injusto, 
i. q. iniquo, very great, excessive: see i. 164. The Roman 
soldier had to carry sixty pounds weight beside his arms, and 
march at the rate of four miles an hour. Veget. i. 1 9 ; see also 
Cic. Tusc. ii. 16. — Ante exspectatum, sc. est, before it is ex- 
pected by the enemy. — in agmine, in line of battle, properly 
in acie. — positis castris. " Nam cum agmen hosti se ostendet, 
a tergo vallum fit." Heyne. We do not think this is the 
meaning of the poet : he simply wishes to say that he arrives, 
encamps and stands in array quicker than was expected. 
349-383. A description of the northern winter. — At non, 



book in. 339-363. 279 

sc. ita fit, this is not the kind of life that is led. — Turbidus 
et torquens. " Eo ipso quod arenas flaventes torquet." Heyne. 
" Ordo est : Et turbidus torquens." Wagner. But perhaps 
here, as in so many other places, turbidus is active : see on Ee. 
ii. 10. Virgil often omits the conj. : cf. ii. 6. — 351. redit, bends 
itself, winds. The poet cannot, as Heyne thinks, have used it 
for the simple it. — medium axem, the middle of the pole, the 
very pole : see ii. 271. — Rhodope, This range, which is pro- 
perly in Thrace, is, with poetic licence and perhaps ignorance 
of geography, made to extend to the remotest north. — 352. 
clausa tenent armenta, i. e. during the winter season. — neque 
ullae. Nam is understood. — informis, here i. q. deformis. — 
adsurgit, sc. nix, from niveis aggeribas in the preceding verse; 
or rather, as Wagner says, gelu (which may be any case) : 
" Alterum verbum finitum per copulam adjectum pro parti- 
cipio positum est (vid. ad Ec. vi. 20 ; viii. 97 ; Geor. ii. 56, 
207, etc.), ut sensus sit : Terra jacet informis gelu assurgente 
in altitudinem septem ulnarum." — Semper kiems, it is always 
winter, i. e. there do not occur those mild bright days that 
interrupt the rigour of winter in Italy. — Cauri, north-west 
winds (v. 278) ; here for north winds in general. — 357. pal- 
lentes, i. q. pallidas. — Nee cum, etc., neither when he rises 
nor when he sets, i. e. in no part of his course. For the horses 
and chariot and course of the Sun, see Mythology, p. 53. — 
rubro aequore, the deep reddened by the rays of the setting 
sun.' — crustae, i. e. glacies.—ferralos orbes, wheels shod with 
iron. — patidis, wide, open. Wakefield would join it with pup- 
pibns instead of plaustris, but a good ear will easily perceive 
that the caesura of the verse is after prius. — hospita, hospita- 
ble, the entertainer of ; animating as usual. — 363. Aera, brazen 
vessels. They burst, as our leaden pipes do, in consequence 
of the expansion of the fluid in them when it is congealed. — 
humida, fluid, i. e. whose natural state is fluidity. — vertere, sc. 
se.— lacunae, lakes or pools : see i. 117. Wunderlich says it 
is i. q. lagenae, and that it is explanatory of the preceding 
verse ; but this, as Jahn says, is refuted by the adj. totae. The 
line however is out of place, and, if we had any authority for 
it, we should be inclined to read it immediately after v. 362. — 



Stiria (from creTpos?), icicle. — 367- non secius, i.e. the snow 
in the density and constancy of its fall vies with the intensity of 
the frost. — Inter 'emit pecudes, etc., sc. those that are not housed 
before the snow begins to fall. — pruinis, i. q. nive, with snow- 
drifts. — Corpora bourn, i. e. boves ; a usual circumlocution. 
Cf. Aen. i. 193; ii. 18; ix. 272. — mole nova, in the new- 
formed drift. — 372. formidine. The formido, filjptvdos, was a 
cord with red feathers fastened along it which the hunters 
stretched in open places in the woods : the deer, when roused 
and driven toward it, terrified by the motion of the feathers, 
turned aside and thus rushed into the nets (casses) that were 
stretched to receive them. Cum maximos ferarum greges 
tinea pennis distincta contineat et in insidias agat; ab ipso 
effectu dicta formido, Sen. de Ira, ii. 12. We still use the 
formido in our gardens to scare away the birds. Formidine 
may however be here simply, ' by the terror.' — montem, i. e. 
molem, v. 370. — 376. Ipsi, the people of the North them- 
selves. — in defossis specubus, etc. This underground mode of 
life is ascribed to the Germans by Tacitus (Germ. 16), to the 
Sarmatians by Mela (ii. 1), and Xenophon (Anab. iv. 5) ac- 
curately describes it as he witnessed it in Armenia. — robora, 
oaks. — noetem ducunt, they draw out (i. e. spend) the night. 
Cf. Aen. iv. 560. — ludo : see Ec. i. 10. — pocida vitea, viny 
cups, i. e. wine. — Fermento, i. e. cerevisia, beer. Potui humor 
ex hordeo aut frumento in quandam similitudinem vini cor- 
ruptus. Tac. Germ. 23. See also Plin. xiv. 22 ; xxii. 25. — 
sorbis. The fruit of the servicertree is acidulous : the liquor 
made from it must have been a kind of cyder, for Palladius 
says (ii. 1 5, 4), Item ex sorbis maturis, sicut ex piris, vinum 
fieri traditur et acetum. — Septem Trioni : a tmesis. The Ursa 
Major was named by the Romans Septemtrio or Septem Trio- 
nis, i. e. Seven Oxen. See Varro, L. L. vii. 74. — effrena, un- 
bridled, i. e. wild, savage. — Euro. He probably means that 
most piercing wind the north-east. — setis, with the hairs, i. e. 
with skins with the hair left on them. 

3S4-393. The breeding of sheep for the sake of their wool. 
— lanitium, i. q. lana. — aspera silva, etc.: see i. 153.—fuge 
pabula laeta. Sheep fed on short grass have always finer wool 



book in. 367-398. 281 

than those fed on rich pastures : thus the South-down wool 
bears the highest price of any English wool. — Ilium, sc. arie- 
tem. The subst. is placed in the parenthetic member of the 
sentence. — Nigra, etc. This is an opinion held by all the 
ancient writers on the subject. — Nascentum : see on Ec. iv. 8. 
— circumspice, look out for. — 391 . Munere, etc. This legend, 
Macrobius tells us (v. 22), was borrowed by our poet from 
Nicander. Munus is used here for attraction, display, or ex- 
hibition ; as the shows given to the Roman people were called 
munera. — si credere, etc., if the tale may be credited. — asper- 
nata, sc. es. 

394-403. At cui lactis, etc. Those who wish to have milk 
and cheese take care to give their sheep and goats plenty of 
lotus-grass and cytisus in their cotes, and salt what they give 
them in order to increase their milk and flavour \t.~-frequentis, 
i. e. in abundance. — salsas, salted, i. e. mixed with salt ; not 
naturally salt. Aristotle (Hist. An. viii. 10) strongly recom- 
mends the giving salt to sheep, and for the same reasons as 
our poet. So also do Columella (vii. 3) and Palladius (xii. 13). 
They say that in summer the salt should be put in wooden 
troughs, that the sheep might lick it as they returned from 
pasture.— -Jluvios, water ; the particular for the general. — 
— ubera tendunt, stretch their udders, i. e. give more milk. — 
Et salis, etc., give a sweet flavour of the salt to their milk. 
This effect is doubtful. We may observe that in these islands 
(owing to the moisture of the climate and the succulence of 
the herbage) sheep never drink unless when diseased : the 
only exception, we believe, is the South-downs. — 398. Multi, 
etc. Those who wish to reserve the milk for sale take mea- 
sures to prevent the young ones from sucking their mothers. 
—jam excretos, as soon as they are separated, Conf. v. 187. 
Excretus comes from excerno, and not from excresco, from 
which Servius seems to derive it, explaining excretos by vali- 
diores, which however will accord equally well with the other 
derivation. Columella (viii. 4) has furfures modice a farina 
excreti. He also (ib. 8) uses excreta tritici for what we call 
tailings or small corn, i. e. what is separated in the Avinnowing. 
Lactantius is the earliest writer who uses excretus as the part. 



282 GEORGICS. 

ofexcresco. — -prohibent, keep them away altogether. — 399. Pri- 
maque, etc. In this place, as elsewhere, que is i. q. aut : the 
meaning is : If the shepherd does not or cannot separate the 
young ones totally from their dams, he prevents them from 
sucking by putting on them muzzles with short iron spikes in 
them, which prick the mother when the young one goes to 
suck her, and makes her drive him away. — Quod surgente, etc. 
Then when they have all the milk to dispose of, they press at 
night what they milked in the forenoon, and what they milk 
in the evening they press before daylight and carry to town, 
or else salt the cheese they make of it and lay it up for winter. 
For the full examination of this difficult passage, see. Excur- 
sus VIII. — exportans. The reading of all the MSS., of Pris- 
cian (xiv. 50), of Servius (on Ec. iii. 5, and Geor. i. 67), and 
of the Scholiast on Horace (C. i. 25 ; S. i. 7, 33), is exportant, 
which is adopted by Jahn and Forbiger. The present reading 
is the emendation of Scaliger on Catull. lxii. : see the Excur- 
sus. — parco, i. e. modico, with a small quantity of: see Colum. 
vii. 8. — contingunt, touch, season ; from tango, not from tingo. 
Quae contacta sale modico sunt, Celsus de Med. ii. 24. 

404-413. On dogs. — Nee tibi cura, etc. By a usual litotes : 
'take good care of your dogs.' — Velocis Spartae catulos, i. e. 
the swift Spartan dogs that were used for the chase : see v. 345. 
— acrem Molossum. The Molossian dogs were chiefly valued 
as sheep- and watch-dogs : see Aristot. Hist. An. ix. 1 ; Hor. 
Ep. vi. 5 ; S. ii. 6, 1 14. — sero pingui. The serum is the whey 
that runs out when the cheese is pressed. Colum. vii. 8. It is 
the Greek 6p6s (Od. xviL 225) or oppbs, which Dioscorides 
says (i. 80) is very nutritive for dogs : hence perhaps Virgil 
terms it pinguis. Barley-meal, however, was usually mixed 
with it for them. — Aut impacatos, etc. The meaning is: 
These dogs will drive off, or at least give notice of the ap- 
proach of, those who, like the restless, unsubdued tribes of 
Spain (we may add the Highlanders and Borderers of Scot- 
land in former days), used to drive off cattle in the open day. 
The critics say that Hiberos (sic in Med.) is here used as a 
general term for robber (as Suisse for a porter, Savoyard for 
a chimney-sweep in France) ; but perhaps our poet, who, as it 



book in. 399-423. 283 

appears from the following verse, did not confine his observa- 
tions to Italy, and who appears to have read Varro (see Varr. 
i. 16), may have extended his view to Spain. There was, we 
believe, no wholesale robbery of this kind carried on in Italy 
at that time. — a tergo, from behind. He had probably the 
Lusitanians, of whom Varro expressly speaks, in his mind ; as 
their country lay behind, i. e. to the west of, the civilised part 
of Spain. — 409. onagros. The onager or wild ass was never 
found in Europe : it was not to be seen nearer than Asia 
Minor and the north of Africa. Varro ii. 6 ; Plin. viii. 44, 66. 
— volutabris, their lairs or wallowing-places in the woods. — 
agens, driving ; as in the ballad of Chevy Chase, " To drive 
the deer with hound and horn." Cf. Aen. i. 191 ; iv. 70. — 
premes ad retia : see v. 371. 

414-439. Directions for banishing and destroying serpents. 
— Disce, etc., ' burn cedar-wood and galbanum (see Flora) in 
your cattle-sheds.' — agitare, to drive away. — gravis, i. q. gra- 
volentes. Cf. Hor. Ep. xii. 5. — chelydros: see ii. 214 — immo- 
tis praesepibus, sheds and stalls that have not been cleaned 
out. — mala tactu, dangerous to touch ; tactu for tactni. Omnia 
item bona sensibus et mala tactu, Lucr. ii. 408. — caelum, the 
light of day. Aen, vi. 896. — exterrita, frightened, i. e. dread- 
ing the heat: see v. 434. — 418. Aut tecto, etc. The construc- 
tion is, Aut coluber, pestis acerba bourn, adsuetus succedere 
tecto et umbrae que adspergere virus pecori, fovit humum. — tecto 
et umbrae, i. q. umbrae tecti ; a hendyadis. — coluber. This is 
supposed to be the Coluber Natrix, a harmless kind of snake, 
but which was accused of sucking the cows. — Fovit humum, 
keeps close to the ground. Cf. iv. 43; Aen. ix. 57. — Tollen- 
tem, etc. "While he is raising himself in a threatening posture 
and swelling his neck with hissings. — Dejice, knock him 
down ; an account of tollentem in the preceding verse.— -jam- 
quefuga, etc. When he sees the shepherd preparing to attack 
him, he takes to flight and gets into some hole or crack in the 
ground as fast as he can. — alte, deep in the ground. — 423. 
Cum medii nexus, etc., ' while his middle rings and his tail 
relax themselves, and his last bend draws its slow orbs along:' 
a very accurate description of the manner in which a snake, 



2S4 OEORGICS. 

when pursued, gets into the ground. — 425. tile mains, tiiat 
dangerous. The serpent here meant is the Chersydrus dry- 
iftus or dryina, a species of the hydra or water-snake. — 
Squamea, etc., i. e. his back is scaly and his belly has large 
spots on it. V. 4-26 is repeated, slightly altered, Aen. ii. 474. 
— rumpuniur (mid. voice), break themselves (i.e. burst) from. 
— atram ingluviem, his dark (or direful) maw. Columella 
(viii. 5) uses ingluvies for the crop of a fowl. — Improbus : see 
i. 119. — 432. dehiscunt, gape or crack. — siccam, sc. solum. — 
asper, i. q. asperatus. See Excursus IX. — exterritus, as in 
v. 417, appalled, beside himself. — sub divo, in the open air. It 
is literally ' under the god,' sc. Jupiter, who was regarded as the 
sky or air, as in this verse of Ennius : Aspice hoc sublime can- 
dens quern invocant omnes Jovem. — dorso nemoris. As dorsum 
is properly used of mountains, of which it signifies sometimes 
the ridge, sometimes the side (Liv. i. 3), Heyne thinks that it 
is a wood on the side of a mountain that is here meant, as in 
Horace (S. ii. 6, 91), praerupti nemoris... dor so. Burmann 
supposes it to signify a bank or eminence in a wood ; but for 
this he is unable to give any authority. — positis exuviis, having 
cast his slough or old skin ; a thing the snakes do every spring, 
and thus, as it were, renew their youth. Hence he uses the 
terms novus and nitidus juventa. — volvitur, he rolls himself : 
mid. voice. — aut catulos, etc. Wagner says this is one of the 
places in which our poet may be caught napping ; for snakes 
take no care of their young, merely depositing their eggs in 
dunghills or such like places in the autumn, where they are 
hatched by the heat of the dung, and the young ones come 
forth in the spring. Virgil, he thinks, transferred to serpents 
the habits of quadrupeds, which, it is well known, are most 
fierce when they have young. Perhaps the poet may be de- 
fended to a certain extent in the following manner. Aristotle 
(Hist. An. viii. 17) says expressly that the serpents cast the 
slough twice in each year, viz. in the spring (i. e. when the 
young ones, catidi, come forth) and in the autumn (i. e. when 
they deposit their eggs) ; and the poet may have designed to 
express these two seasons. If so however he erred in saying 
catidos relinquens, for the snake knows nothing about its young 



book in. 425-448. 285 

ones. At any rate we will not vouch for Virgil's knowledge 
of natural history. — 438. catulos. This is used abusively, for its 
proper signification is whelps. — Arduus, raised. — Unguis micat, 
etc., litt. ' darts from his mouth with his triple tongue,' i. e. darts 
his triple tongue from his mouth. The reading ora given by 
Heyne and Voss is to be found in no MS., and in reality does 
not make sense. The ancients imagined the tongue of the 
snake (which is very long, and which it darts out with great 
rapidity) to be cleft into three. Tresque vibrant linguae, tri- 
plici stant ordine dentes, says Ovid (Met. iii. 34), who was a 
much more accurate observer of nature than our poet. It is 
to be observed that vv. 437, 439 occur again, Aen. ii. 473, 475. 
— trisulcis, i. e. trisulcatis, cleft in three. 

440-463. The diseases of sheep. — Turpis scabies, the foul 
scab. — tentat, attacks : see Ec. i. 49. — Altius ad vivum, down 
to the quick, i. e. has penetrated through the wool and reached 
the skin. — et, i.q. vel — vel cum tonsis, etc., or if they have been 
shorn without having been previously washed. — et, i.q. vel, as in 
v. 4'L2. — hirsuti, in Med. et Rom. hirsutis, which, it is plain 
from Columella (vii. 5), cannot be the true reading. Wagaer 
says the error was caused by the s in the beginning of the fol- 
lowing word : see i. 125. — 445. Dulcibus idcirco, etc. As a 
remedy against the former evil, shepherds plunge and wash 
their flocks carefully in running water before they shear them ; 
see i. 272. — udisque aries, etc. This is probably added to show 
that it was in running, not stagnant water, that he would have 
the sheep to be washed. — secundo amni, i. e. with or down the 
stream. — 448. Aut tonsum, etc. or else they rub them all over, 
after they have been shorn, with the following composition, 
namely amurca, litharge of silver, native sulphur, tar, wax, 
squills, hellebore and bitumen. Like nearly all the receipts to 
be met with in ancient writers, and those among ignorant people 
with ourselves, it contains a number of needless ingredients. 
Varro (ii. 11) merely recommends a mixture of wine and oil, to 
which some, he says, used to add white wax and hogs'-lard. — 
spumas argenti. The oxide or scum that forms on the surface 
of silver, or of lead containing silver, when in fusion : see Plin. 
xxxiii. 6. — sulfura viva, virgin or native sulphur, as it is found 



in Sicily and the Lipari isles. This is the reading of the Medi- 
cean, the Roman and other good MSS. ; the common read- 
ing is vivaque sulfura, making the verse hypermetric. — 450. 
Idaeas, epith. ornans : it is the liquid pitch or tar of course 
that is meant : see Plin. xxxiv. 7- — pingues unguine, rich in 
unction, i. e. soft and yielding. Wax can only be rendered so 
by the addition of oil. — gravis, i. e. gravolentes : see v. 415. — 
4:52. praesens : see Ec. i. 42. — -fortuna, i. e. remedium, in which 
of course there is always somewhat of chance. — laborum, of 
the disease. — potuit, is able, i. e. has the skill ; an aorist. — te- 
gendo, by being covered or concealed : see ii. 239. — Abnegat, 
utterly refuses, oat of indolence or despair. — aut meliora, etc., 
or merely sits calling on the gods for aid ; the fable of the 
countryman and Hercules. — omina, signs, as a proof of the 
divine favour. This is the reading of the best MSS. ; others 
have omnia. — 457. dolor, the disease. — depascitur. The verb 
depascor governs the ace, though pascor does not : see Aen. 
ii. 215. — incensos aestus, the inflamed (i. e. the violent) heat. 
The phrase is similar to nascentem ortum, i. 441. — el inter, etc., 
and to bleed (i.e. by bleeding) in the foot: this is the usual 
place for bleeding a sheep, as, on account of the wool, the 
neck cannot be got at. The sheep is also bled in the face or 
ear. — Bisaltae quo more solent, as the Bisaltae are used to do 
to their horses. He does not mean that they bleed their 
horses in the foot, but simply that they bleed them. The 
Bisaltae dwelt in Thrace, about the river Strymon. This 
practice is nowhere else ascribed to the Thracians. — Gelonus. 
The Geloni were Scythians, who dwelt on the Borysthenus. 
—fugit. He uses this word because they were horsemen, and 
therefore moved from place to place with rapidity. — in Rho- 
dopen : see v. 351. — atque. The Med. has aut, which is cer- 
tainly the sense of the particle in this place. — deserta Getarum, 
i. e. the countiy between the Danube and the Dniester, part 
of the present Moldavia. Wagner says, that the poet means 
that the Bisaltae went to Rhodope, the Gelonian to the country 
of the Getae. But there is no need for this refinement, for 
the negligence and uncertainty of the ancient poets in matters 
of geography is well-known. We have just seen our poet 



book in. 450-475. 287 

ascribe to the Thracians a practice that was peculiar to the 
Sarmatians. Plin.xviii. 10. — Et lac, etc., 'and drinks milk (i.e. 
mare's milk) thickened with horse's blood.' This is another 
mistake of the poet. Pliny (ut snp.~) says that the Sarmatians 
used to live sometimes on equine milk or blood thickened 
with millet-meal: he adds, probably induced by this very 
passage, that the blood was taken from the horse's legs ! 

464-477. Signs of, and remedy for, disease in sheep. Lan- 
guor and sickness were to be inferred when one of the sheep 
was observed to get frequently into the shade, to crop lazily 
and negligently the tops of the grass, to loiter behind when 
the flock was in motion, to lie down when grazing in the 
middle of the field, and to linger behind when the rest of the 
sheep were going home at night. — Continuo culpam, etc., 
< check the disease at once with steel,' i. e. kill the diseased 
animal. — incautum vulgus. This is either, the throng (i. e. 
flock) which takes no care of itself; or rather, the throng 
which is neglected, of which the shepherd takes no proper 
care, as is indicated by his leaving the diseased one among 
them. Repente incautos agros invasit, Sail. H. inc. 122. Vul- 
gus. Volgum turbamque animantum, Lucr. ii. 919. ' Not so 
frequent does the whirlwind, bringing rain with it, rush down 
on the sea, as', etc. ; i. e. the diseases of sheep are as numerous 
and violent as the whirlwinds that agitate the main. — aestiva, 
summer-camps ; a military term, applied to the flocks of sheep 
as they were moved to distant pastures in the summer, as is still 
the practice in Italy and Spain.— Spem, i.e. the lambs : see Ec. 
i. 15. — cunctamque, etc. This is merely exegetic of what pre- 
cedes. — Turn sciat, etc. He who has any doubt of this, may 
convince himself of the truth of it by viewing the present con- 
dition of a district in which the cattle were attacked by an 
epidemic. — aerias, lofty : see Ec. viii. 59. — Nurica castella. 
Noricurn was on the northern declivity of the Alps, the pre- 
sent Salzburg, Styria and Carinthia. The word castella seems 
appropriate, as Livy (xxi. 33) describes the Alpine peoples 
who opposed Hannibal as issuing from their castella or forts. 
Cf. Aen. v. 440. — 475. Iapydis Timavi. The Timavus (see Ec. 
viii. 6) was so named from the lapydes, an Illyrian people who 



2S8 GEORGICS. 

dwelt near it. The scene of this pestilence was therefore the 
whole country to the east of the Alps, and the calamity was 
probably well-known to all the people of Lombardy. — -post 
ta?ito, sc. tempore. See Ec. i. 29. — regna. See Ec. i. 70. 

478-497. The remainder of the book is devoted to the de- 
scription of the epidemic, and its effects on the various animals. 

First, its general effects morbo caeli, an infected state of the 

atmosphere. — miseranda tempestas, a dreadful season. — toto 
aestu, with the whole heat of autumn, i. e. with a most sultry 
autumn. — incanduit, glowed. — Corrupit locus. The greater 
part of the water in pools and ponds being drawn off by the 
heat, the remainder became putrid. — infecit pabula tabo. The 
juices of the grass and other plants being extracted by the 
heat, and they being thus deprived of their nutritious power, 
the effect was the same as if the blood in the animal body was 
corrupted and converted into tabum ; hence he uses the latter 
word. — via mortis, the mode or course of death. — simplex, one, 
the same : see ii. 73 ; or perhaps, simple, without change, 
which seems to accord best with what follows. — ignea sitis, 
fiery fever-heat. He names it sitis from its usual effect. — 
acta, driven through or into. — adduxerat, had contracted, 
compressed, or reduced in bulk.— -fluidus liquor, the tabus or 
corrupted blood. — minutatim, reduced to small particles, or 
gradually. — morbo collapsa, wasted down by the disease. — in se 
trahebat, made part of itself : they became fluid, and a part of 
the tabus. — 4<86. in honore dewn medio, in the midst of a sacri- 
fice. This is the usual sense of this phrase : Aen. i. 636 ; iii. 
118. — Lanea dum nivea, etc. The infula appears to have 
been a broad woollen band, that was put round the head of 
the victim ; the vitta would seem to have been a narrower band, 
which fastened the infula on. — inter cunctantis, among the de- 
laying, i. e. while they delayed, sc. to kill him. — ante, before it 

dropped down dead. — hide, thence, from it : see on i. 5 nee 

impositis, etc., 'the altars neither burn when the fibres are 
placed on them.' This Heyne calls " exquisitius dictum," for, 
' the fibres did not burn on the altars.' We must confess that 
we wish the poet both here and elsewhere had expressed 
himself naturally.— -fibris. The Jibra was the lobe of the 



book in. 478-509. 289 

liver or the lung. — Nee responsa potest, etc. The exta were in 
so diseased a state, that the parts by which they used to di- 
vine were either wanting or quite altered. — Ac vix, etc. There 
was hardly any blood in him, and what there was was mere 
gore. — -jejuna, thin. Such is the effect of fasting : hence he 
uses the term jejunus. Cf. ii. 212. Corpora succo jejuna, Lucr. 
ii. 844. 

494-514. Hinc, hence, from this disease. — vulgo, com- 
monly, everywhere. — blandis, fawning. — Tussis anhela, etc. 
The disease of swine called the angina, vayyr], fipayyos. See 
Aristot. Hist. An. viii. 21. — obesis, as the swine is usually fat. 
— infelix studiorum, whom his pursuits (i. e. his racing, etc.) 
avail not now. Cf. i. 277 ; Aen. iv. 529. Heyne would join stu- 
diorum with herbae, and have both governed of immemor ; but 
this is harsh. — Victor, sc. in the race. — avertitur fontes, turns 
away from the water, airoc-phhe-ai to vSiop. It is therefore a 
Grsecism. Forbiger says he knows no other instance of this 
verb used as a deponent ; but surely it is here rather a reflected 

verb or the middle voice : see on Ec. iii. 106 Crebra, i. e. 

crebro. — incertus sudor, i. e. that breaks out irregularly — ibi- 
dem, there, i. e. about the ears. He adds that it is cold, and 
cold ears, it is well known, are a symptom of disease in horses. 
— aretpellis, the skin is dry and hot : another well-known sym- 
ptom, as is also the following, viz. his being hidebound. — 503. 
ante exitium, before their death. He seems to mean (and it 
is not always that his meaning can be discovered with cer- 
tainty), that these are the first symptoms that appear in a 
horse that has a deadly attack of this distemper. Sin in the 
following verse would therefore appear to mean but when. — 
crudescere, to increase in virulence, litt. to grow more raw. — 
attractus ab alto Spiritus, deep heavings. — gemitu gravis, heavy 
with groaning, denoting greater pain — imaque longo, etc., 
they stretch their flanks with prolonged heavy panting. He 
terms the flanks ima, either on account of their distance from 
the head, or to indicate the force of the panting, which sends 
them in so far. — aspera lingua. The tongue is rough and thick 
on account of the inflammation. — 509. Profuit, etc. It was 
found of advantage to drench them with wine. — morientibus, 

o 



290 GEORGICS. 

for those that seemed likely to die ; i. e. against their dying. — 
Mox erat, etc. ; but this very thing soon proved to be inju- 
rious, as it was found to increase the fever, and they even, just 
before they died, tore their own limbs with their teeth. — 513. 
Dii milium, sc. dent. — errorem, i. e.furorem : see Ec. viii. 41. — 
Ji/ulis, i. e. ntidutis, naked, exposed by drawing back the lips. 

515-536. The effect of the pestilence on oxen.— fumans, sc. 
sudore: see ii. 54-2. — abjungens, sc. ajugo, airo£ev£as, having 
unyoked. The Latin poets, as their language had no part, an- 
swering to that of the aorist in Greek, ventured sometimes to 
use the praes. part, in a past sense.— -fraterna morte, at the 
death of his brother, i. c. comrade. The ancients usually 
ploughed with a single pair of oxen. — relinquit. This is the 
reading of all the best MSS. Voss and Heyne follow those 
that read reliquit, regarding it as cxquisitius. — 521. Movere 
cuiimam, attract them, sc. the oxen in general, who were af- 
fected by the disease ; not merely, as some suppose, the juven- 
cus of v. 518. — Purior electro, brighter, clearer than electrum. 
The critics say that it is the metal electrum, composed of four 
parts gold and one part silver (Plin. xxxiii. 4°) that is meant. 
But surely it may be amber ; as clear as amber is a common 
phrase of our own when commending liquors. — at, on the 
contrary. — ima : see v. 506. — Solvuntur, etc. All signs of 
weakness and disease. — Quid labor, etc. It was of this and 
the following five lines that Scaliger said (Poet. v. 1 ] ) that he 
would rather be the author of them than have Croesus or 
Cyrus at his command. They are no doubt beautiful, but not 
of such very extraordinary merit ; and we confess that we pre- 
fer to them Lucretius' description of the cow seeking her calf, 
ii. 355, seq. — epulae repostae, luxurious banquets. This is, as 
all agree, the general meaning of the passage-; but critics differ 
as to the exact sense. Heyne will have repostae to be i. q.positae t 
but though the simple is used frequently for the compound, 
the converse, as we have before remarked, is not the case. 
Voss and Wakefield say that it is dainties sought for far and 
near, and then carefully laid up in pantries and storerooms. 
Wagner, comparing the use of reponere with that ofinstaurare 
in our ooet, supposes the reference to be to the sacrificial 



book nr. 513-541. 291 

banquets, which were noted for their luxury. Plaut. Men. i. 
1, 25 ; Hor. C. ii. 14, 28 ; Mart. xii. 48, 12. Gessner (v. repos- 
tus, in Thesaur. L. L.) says, " Puto inprimis significari binas 
eodem die epulas, bis in die saturum fieri, quod in Siculis Dio- 
nysii coenis dispHcebat Platoni : Cic. Tusc. v. 35, 100." — 
Pocula, i. e. potio. — exercita cursu, exercised with running ; 
in opposition to standing water. — 532. Quaesitas, sought for, 
i. e. not to be had. — ad sacra, for the sacred rites. We think 
that Servius, and those who follow him, are right in sup- 
posing that there is an allusion here to the sacred rites of 
Juno at Argos, which Herodotus has rendered memorable by 
the story of Cleobis and Biton (i. 31). Indeed it is so un- 
likely that the people of Noricum should have worshiped 
the Argive goddess in the Argive mode, that one might 
suspect the poet of transferring to them the Grecian custom, 
were it not that the car of the German goddess Hertha 
(Earth, same as the Argive Hera,) was drawn by kine. Tac. 
Germ. 40. Strabo (v. p. 215) however says that there was a 
grove (ciXo-os) of the Argive Hera in the Venetian territory. 
— uris. See ii. 374. — Imparibus, that were not matches ; per- 
haps it is, unfit for the office. — donaria, i. e. templum ; as the 
place where the dona, i. e. sacrifices, etc. were offered. — Ergo, 
etc. Having thus no draft-cattle, they were obliged to give 
up the use of the plough and cultivate their corn with the 
spade, hoe, etc. He uses rastra for implements in general. — 
rimantur, dig : see on i. 384. — ipsis unguibus, with their own 
hands ; unguis for manus. The ancients usually sowed under 
the plough; hence he says infodiunt. — Contenta cervice, with 
a strained neck. Contentus in this sense is a favourite term 
with Lucretius. 

537-547. The wild animals, the fish and the serpents also 
suffered from it. — insidias, i. e. locum aut opportunitatem insi- 
diis. Cf. Aen. ix. 59. — gregibus obamhulat, i. e. goes up to the 
field-pens, in which the sheep are kept at night. — Cura, sc. of 
his own disease. — timidi damae, etc. They lose all terror in 
their indifference to life. — 541. et, even. Cf. v. 473.- — nataniiim, 
fish. Like volantes, bees, iv. 16 ; birds, Aen. vi. 190, 239 ; ba- 
lantes, sheep, i. 272. Lucretius has (ii. 342) natantes squam- 

o2 



migerum pecudes ; but Virgil first used natantes alone. Ari- 
stotle (Hist. An. viii. 19), whom Pliny follows (ix.49), asserts 
that fish are never affected by an epidemic. In this, and what 
he says of the serpents, the poet therefore states, for the sake 
of effect, what is not correct. — 543. Proluit. Wagner says that 
here one might rather expect p>rojicit, or some such verb. But 
this is not the view of the poet ; he supposes the fish thrown like 
the bodies of drowned sailors up on the beach, where they are 
washed by each succeeding wave. — insolitae, unused to do so. 
Cur prudentissimas feminas in tantum virorum conventum in- 
solitas invitasque prodire cogis? Cic. Verr. iii. 37- Heyne is 
wrong in explaining it insolito more. — phocae, the seals. — 544. 
fruslra, because the pestilential air penetrates into it. — attoniti, 
like exterriti, is applied to the serpents to express the high de- 
gree of uneasiness which they feel. — non aequus, i. e. perni- 
cious : see ii. 225. — et Mae. Et seems here used in a causative 
sense as nam. 

548 to the end. — Praeterea, etc. ' It is of no avail to change 
their food.' — Quaesitae artes, the remedies sought. We how- 
ever rather think it is, the masters of art or skilful persons 
(i. e. doctors) to whom recourse was had ; the act for the 
agent: see on ii. 382. — nocent, hurt rather than serve, i. e. 
are of no use. — Phillyrides, etc. He uses Chiron and Me- 
lampus in order to express that the most skilful doctors, even 
though equal to these two mythic surgeons, could effect 
nothing. Chiron was the son of Saturn and the nymph Phil- 
lyra : Melampus was the son of Amythaon : see Mythology, 
p. 436. — Saevit, etc. ' Tisiphone sent out into the light of day 
rages, and drives Disease and Death before her ; and rising 
every day more and more, raises higher her craving head.' A 
noble poetic expression of the increasing ravages of the pes- 
tilence. — colles supini, the sloping hill. — 558. Donee, etc. The 
only remedy was to bury them as fast as possible, that the 
effluvia from their bodies might not increase the venom of the 
atmosphere. — neque erat, etc. That was to be done because 
their skins and their flesh Avere equally useless. — viscera, their 
flesh. The viscera, according to Servius, are all that is beneath 
the skin. — undis abolere, to wash, or rather boil in water, and 



book in. 543-566. 293 

thus take out the venom. — vincere Jlamma, roast. It is thus 
that Servius explains the passage. Heyne says that it means 
the quantity was too great to be consumed either by water or 
by fire, and therefore they were buried. The former explana- 
tion is, we think, greatly to be preferred. — telas, i. e. if they 
did shear them and manufacture the wool. — invisos amictus, 
i. e. garments made of that infected wool. — papulae, pimples, 
pustules. — moranti, to him delaying ; though it did not imme- 
diately attack him. — sacer ignis. It is not known exactly what 
disease this was ; it resembled the erysipelas, from which how- 
ever Celsus (v. 28, 4) distinguishes it. Voss thinks it might 
have been St. Antony's fire. 



BOOK IV. 



Argument. 



Proposition, 1-7. Situation for the hives, 8-32. Hives, 
33-50. Swarming, 51-66. Battles of the bees, 67-87. Dif- 
ferent kinds of bees, 88-102. Mode of keeping them from 
wandering, 103-115. Digression on gardens, 116-148. Man- 
ners and customs of the bees, 149-218. Opinion respecting 
their nature, 219-227- Mode of taking the honey, 228-250. 
Diseases of the bees and their cure, 251-280. Mode of ob- 
taining new stocks when they have died off, 281-314. Story 
of Aristaeus, and of Orpheus and Eurydice, 315-558. Con- 
clusion of the poem, 559 to the end. 

Notes. 

1-7. Protenus, forthwith, in continuation : see on Ec. i. 13. 
— aerii, etc. It was the general belief of the ancients that 
honey was a dew that fell from the sky, and that the bees 
merely collected it. MeXi Ee tu ttItztov eic rov aepos says Ari- 
stotle (H. A. v. 22); and as a proof of it he adds, that bee- 



294< GEORGICS. 

masters often find their hives filled in one or two days ; and 
that in the autumn, if the honey is taken out of the hives, 
they are not replenished, though there is plenty of flowers. 
It is therefore not from them, which only yield wax, that they 
extract it. It falls chiefly, he says, at the rising of the con- 
stellations (never before that of the Pleiades), and when there 
is a rainbow. Pliny (xi. 12) says it is then found on the 
leaves of the trees, and that if one goes out early in the morn- 
ing he will find his hair and clothes covered with it. He 
doubts whether it be the sweat of the sky, or a certain spittle 
of the stars, or the juice of the air which is purging itself. In 
Arabia and the neighbouring regions, after a kind of mist in 
the months of July and August, a sweet substance is found on 
the leaves of the palm and other frees ; and in this country 
the leaves of the lime and other trees are often covered with a 
similar substance, which is known to be produced by aphides 
and other insects. It was this probably that led the ancients 
to their erroneous theory of the origin of honey. 

4. ordine, in due order. Most MSS. read ex ordine. — 5. po- 
pulos, the peoples, i. e. the different communities, hives or 
stocks into which the gens or race is divided. Cf. Aen. x. 202. 
— 7. Numina laeva, propitious deities, according to Servius, 
who is followed by the commentators in general ; while Gel- 
lius (v. 12) and Burmann understand by it adverse deities. In 
favour of the former it is said that, as the Romans in taking 
auguries faced the south, the east was on the left, and signs 
from that quarter were regarded as the favourable ones ; and 
our poet uses laevum in this sense, Aen. ii. 693; ix. 630. See 
also Plin. ii. 52, 55 ; Ovid. Fast. iv. 833 ; Liv. i. 1,8; Phaedr. 
iii. 18. As the Greeks looked to the north, the east was on 
their right, which therefore was their lucky side. The critics 
however seem not to have observed, that in all the passages 
to which they refer for laevus in the sense of favourable, it is 
always thunder, etc. that is meant. We are therefore inclined 
to think, that as Virgil elsewhere uses laeva in a bad sense 
(see Ec. i. 16), and sinistra in like manner (Ec. ix. 15), he 
does the same here, and that Gellius understood the pas- 
sage rightly. The verb sinunt would be more properly used 



book iv. 1-18. 295 

of adverse than of favouring deities. — auditque, etc., if they 
do not prevent, and if Apollo aids. Vocatns audio is a usual 
form of expression respecting a deity. Cf. Hor. C. ii. 18, 40; 
iii. 22, 3. It is probably Apollo Nomios that he means. It 
may be here observed, that the poet seems to have derived 
his account of the bees from Aristotle (H. A. ix. 40) and 
Varro iii. 16. 

8-32. Choice of a situation for the hive ; what is to be 
avoided, 8-17; what is to be sought for, 18-32. It is to be 
sheltered from winds, and placed where no cattle can come 
near it, also out of the way of lizards and some kinds of birds. 
10. haedi petulci i. e. playful kids. Lucretius (ii. 368) has 
agni petidci. — 11. insidtent, bound on. As sheep are not apt 
to do so, he probably by oves means lambs, and que is dis- 
junctive as usual. — campo, in the field. — 13. picti squalentia, 
etc., the rough back of the speckled lizard, i. e. the stellio, 
v. 243. In a similar sense he uses picti of birds, iii. 243 ; Aen. 
iv. 525. — 14. Pinguibus a stabulis, from the rich hives. — me- 
ropes. The Merops apiaster L., or Bee-eater, a bird of pas- 
sage in the south of Europe, which makes its nest as deep as 
four ells underground. Voss describes it as being of the size 
of a starling, but formed like a stork, blue and red on the 
head, green and red on the neck and shoulders, golden-yellow 
on the throat, blue-green ending in yellow from the breast 
downwards, and the long tail-feathers blue and brown. — 15. 
Et, especially. — Procne, the swallow : see on Ec. vi. 78. — 
signata. We do not agree with Voss in taking this as a Mid. 
voice. — 16. Omnia nam, etc. Like a plundering army they 
spread their ravages far and near. — volantes, the (flying) bees. 
Cf. i. 272; iii. 147- — 17- nidis, i. q. pullis. In the sacred 
poetry of the Hebrews the nest was also used for the nestlings 
or the young birds which it contained : see Deut. xxxii. 11. 

18. At, etc. What should be there. Et in these two verses 
is evidently disjunctive; see v. 25. — stagna virentia musco, 
pools with green moss growing around them. — tenuis rivus, a 
shallow rivulet. Varro (iii. 16) says it should not be more than 
two or three inches deep. The same applies to the preceding 
stagna, of which Heyne must have had an erroneous concep- 



296 GEORGICS. 

tion when he spoke of rocks covered with moss rising out of 
them. — 20. vestibidum, the vestibule or outer part of the hive, 
which is of course included, as the shade of a tree could not 
cover the one without the other. — 22. Vere suo, in their own 
spring, i. e. in that part of the spring in which they swarm. — 
ludet, sports. This refers to the incessant flying backwards 
and forwards of the bees previous to the rising of the swarm. 
— 23. Vidua ripa, sc. of the pool or stream. — decedere calori, 
retire from the heat. Cf. iii. 467- — 24. Obviaque, etc., ' or the 
tree which is at hand (obvia) detain them in its leafy bower.' 
The figure seems to be taken from the practice of the Romans 
of receiving their friends when on a journey at their country- 
seats. It is an object with bee-masters to get the swarm to 
settle as soon as possible. — 25. In medium, i. e. in it. — seu 
stabit iners, whether it stand inert, i. e. be a pool, v. 18. — seu 
profluet, or run, v. 19. — 26. Transversas, etc., May willows 
across the stream, and put large stones into the pool.' — 27. 
Pontibus, bridges, i. e. resting-places. — aesfivum, warm. — 
29. Sparserit, sc .imbre, " nam spargere pro irrigare, irrorare 
usurpatur." Wunderlich. It may however be simply scat- 
tered, and, being fatigued, they might not be able to cross the 
water if they had not these halting-places. — Neptuno, in the 
water. — Eurus, simply the wind. — 30. Haec circum, etc. 
' About these (founts, ponds or streams, v. 18,) let grow casia, 
serpyllum, and plenty of strong-smelling thymbra, and let vio- 
let-plantations imbibe the water.' — 31. graviter spirantis. Gra- 
vis here is used in a more agreeable sense than in iii. 41 5, 451. 
— 32. irriguum, i. e. irrigatum: see Cato, 151. — -fontem, i. e. 
aquam. 

33-50. Directions about the hives. — corticibus suta cavalis, 
put together (i. e. formed) of hollow cork-wood, the cortex 
suberis, Colum. ix. 6. — 34. Seu lento, etc., or, if they are 
woven, of flexible twigs. Virgil only mentions these two 
kinds of hives ; but Columella (1. c.) notices also those made 
of the fenda, which, he says, are next best to those of cork- 
wood ; those of a hollowed piece of timber or of boards ; those 
of potters' ware, which he looks on as by far the worst ; and 
finally, those made of cow-dung or bricks. The ancients do 



book iv. 20-45. 297 

not seem to have known the straw-hive — alvearia. The e is 
elided in this word, otherwise it could not be admitted into 
a dactylic verse : see ii. 453. — 35. Angustos habeant aditus, 
etc. The reason which he gives here for making the en- 
trances narrow would almost lead one to think that he mis- 
understood his authorities. The true reason of making the 
entrance narrow was, as Columella tells us (ix. 7), — though 
out of respect to the poet he glances at the reason given by 
him, — to keep out lizards, beetles, moths, etc., while hives 
of cork are commended, because they exclude the heat in 
summer and the cold in winter; and those of earthenware 
condemned for the opposite reason. — 37. neque Mae, etc- It 
is for this reason that the bees themselves are so careful to 
stop up every chink and cranny in the walls of their hives. 
■ — 39. Spiramenta : see i. 90.— -fuco etjloribus, i. q. fnco flo- 
rium, with the pollen of the flowers. — oras, the entrance of 
the hive 40. gluten. This is the propolis, a substance col- 
lected from the vines and poplars: Plin. xi. 7. — 41. visco: 
see i. 139. — pice Idae: see iii. 460. — 42. Saepe etiam, etc. 
So anxious are the bees to have protection against the ex- 
tremes of heat and cold, that they are known of themselves 
to make their combs in holes in the ground, in rocks, and in 
decaying trees. — effossis latehris, in places in the ground hol- 
lowed out by nature or by the hand of man, not, as Servius 
seems to think, by the bees themselves. He adds, " if the re- 
port be true," because he probably knew this only on the au- 
thority of Aristotle, who (v. 22) relates it of the bees at 

Themiscyra, on the Thermodon in Asia 43. fovere larem, 

cherish their household-god, i. e. keep at home. Some MSS. 
(the Med. included) read fodere. We shall find the poet 
throughout applying to the bees the customs and ideas of 
me n. — 44. Pumicibus. By the pumcx here is meant any kind 
of rock, ex. gr. sand- or lime-stone, that had holes or fissures in 
it. — antro, the hollow or cavity. — 45. Tu tamen, etc. ' You 
then, beemaster, do not leave the bees to do all for themselves, 
but plaster the outside of their hives, if they are not quite 
close, with smooth mud, and spread leaves over them.' Simi- 
lar to this last precept is our practice of putting a thatch of 

o5 



^yb GEORGICS. 

straw over the hives. Wagner says he should have expected 
densas instead of raras, but the poet knew that leaves do not 
lie close together when spread on anything. — tectis, the hives. 
— 47. taxum. See on Ec. ix. 30. — neve rubentis, etc. This pre- 
cept, of not burning crabs near hives, is also given by Colu- 
mella (ix. 5), following our poet. The ancients used to burn 
crabs as a remedy against sundry diseases of trees. The di- 
rection here is, not to do so in the neighbourhood of the 
hives. He says rubentis, reddening, because, as is well known, 
crabs turn red under the influence of heat. — 48. cdtae neu 
crede, etc. ' Do not place your hives near a marsh, or in any 
place where there is a smell of mud, or where there is an echo.' 
— 50. vocis imago, or imago simply, is the proper Latin ex- 
pression for the Greek v\w, our echo: see Hor. C. i. 12, 3; 
20, 6 ; Val. Flac. iii. 596 ; Sil. Ital. xiv. 365. 

51-66. The swarming of the bees. — Quod superest : see on 
ii. 34-6. — 52. aestiva luce, the light of summer. The division 
of the year into summer and winter is usual to Virgil. — re- 
chisit, <c. mcbibus disjectis. — 54. purpweos, bright, beautiful. 
— metunt. Meto is to reap ; and as in reaping, the ears, or part 
containing the corn, were cut and carried away, so, as the bees 
carried off the pollen of the flowers, he uses this verb here. — 
fiiimina libant, they sip the water; for water is necessary for 
bees. — leves, light, i. e. on the wing. — 55. Hinc, with these, 
the flowers and water. Idoneos adfetum decerpunt jiores atque 
intra tectum comportant, Colum. ix. 14. It is curious to see 
how the practical husbandman here follows the poet in his lan- 
guage, for be must surely have known that the bees did not 
carry home the flowers themselves. Columella seems to have 
had v. 200 in view. — nescio qua, etc. See i. 412. — -fovent, they 
rear. — hinc arte, etc. 'Out of this they ingeniously make 
(litt. beat out) new wax and form the clammy honey.' — 58. 
Hinc, hence, on this account; sc. their love of shade and 
water, v. 61. — ubijam, etc., when they swarm. — caveis, from 
the hives. — Nare, fly. Nare and volare, each denoting the 
passage of a solid body through a fluid, are used interchange- 
ably by the poets. " And float amid the liquid noon." Gray, 
Ode to Spring. — aestatem liquidam, the clear summer-sky. — 



book iv. 47-83. 299 

suspexeris, looking up you will see. — Obscuram nuhem, i. e. 
the swarm. — mirabere. Miror seems to be used here for the 
simple video, to vary the phrase; but the idea of admiration 
is included. — 61. Contemplator, watch : see i. 287. — aquas ditt- 
oes, etc., for they will be sure to make for the water or the 
trees. — 62. Hue, in this place, for which you see them making. 
—jussos, 'the following, which I direct you to use.' — 63. Trita, 
pounded. — ignobile, common. — 64. Tinnitics cie, etc. Make a 
noise by clattering for example the cymbals used in the wor- 
ship of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. — Ipsae, of them- 
selves, without any further labour on your part. — 66. cicna- 
bula, the rearing-place of their future progeny, i. e. the hive. 
This is the mode of hiving bees at the present day. 

67-87- Battles of the bees — Sin autem ad pugnam, etc. 
' But if, instead of swarming, it is to battle that they issue 
forth in a body.' — 68. JRegibus. The ancients, who were not 
so familiar as we are with the economy of the bees, regarded 
the queen-bees as of the masculine gender. — trepidantia bello, 
hastening, preparing for war. — 71. Hie aeris rauci canor, that 
well-known sound resembling the hoarse note of the trumpet. 
— 72.fractos, interrupted, not continuous. — 73. inter se coeunt, 
they assemble. — pennis coruscant, i. q. cor.pennas, they vibrate 
with their wings, i. e. they vibrate or move their wings quickly. 
Penna pro ala, as the bird's wing is composed of feather. 1 ?. 
— 74. rostris. They use their bills (i. e. mouths) by way of 
whetstones for their darts, i. e. stings. This is not true. Cf. iii. 
*255. — aptant lacertos, like boxers : see Aen. v. 376. — 75. ipsa, 
the very. — praetoria. The praetorium was the general's quar- 
ters in a Roman camp. — 77- ver sudum, a cloudless spring- 
day. — nactae, sc. sunt. — campos, sc. aeris. — 78. Erumpunt, etc. 
The asyndetons in this and the following verse give animation 
to the scene : all the terms employed, it will be seen, are the 
Roman military ones. — concurritur (impers.),the battle begins: 
see Hor. S. i. 1, 7. — 79. glomerantur ; a Mid. voice. — tantum 
glandis, so many acorns. — 82. Ipsi, sc. reges. — insignibus alls. 
If they were human warriors we might have had insign. armis. 
He seems to have mentioned the wings of the bees as being 
the part most likely to attract notice. — 83. angusto, small. — 



300 GEORGICS. 

S4. obnixi, i. q. obnitentes, struggling, i. e. determined. — 86. Hi 
motus, etc. ' All this turmoil and contention may be put an 
end to by flinging a handful of sand or dust among the com- 
batants.' 

88-102. The different kinds of kings and of common bees. 
— acie, from the battle. — 91. maculis auro, etc., bright with 
rough gold spots. — ore, his look, his general appearance. — 93 
Etrutilis, etc. A variation of v. 91. — horridus, i. q. horrens, 
his bristles standing on end. — 94. Desidia, in consequence of 
his sloth. — inglorius, without reputation or desert. — 95. cor- 
pora. This is merely a variation of phrase after fades. — tur- 
pes, ugly, the opposite oi'formostis. — 96. ceu pulvere, etc. 'Like 
the arid traveller when he emerges from a cloud of dust and 
spits it out of his dry mouth.' — terrain, i.e. pulverem. — 99. Ar- 
dentes auro, glowing (i. e. shining) as to their bodies marked 
with regular drops of gold, i. e. their bodies marked, etc. — 
Ufa, litt. daubed, smeared. — 100. suboles, breed. — hinc, from 
these. — caeli. He uses caelum here for the year, as elsewhere 
(iii. 327) for the day. — 101. nee tantum dulcia, etc. ' Not so 
sweet as thin (or clear), and therefore able to overcome the 
harsh taste of wine.' He seems to mean, that the clearer and 
thinner the honey, the more readily it would blend with the 
wine. The liquor thus composed was called mulsum ; it con- 
sisted of two parts wine and one part honey : strong old wine, 
such as Falernian, was preferred for making it. Plin. xi. 15. 

103-115. How to keep the newly-hived swarm from un- 
steady rambling. — 104. Cordemnunt, i. e. do not set about 
making.— -frigida tecta, their abodes cold by reason of their 
not occupying them. — 106. regibus. Because he had said ex- 
amina, v. 103. — altum iter, sc. in the air. — 108. vellere signa, 
to pluck up the standards. He here, as before, employs mili- 
tary terms. — 109. Invitent, etc. Another way to keep them 
at home is to have a good flower-garden near them. — halantes, 
breathing, i. e. emitting an odour. — croceis fioribus, yellow 
flowers, i. e. coloured flowers, the def. for the indef. — 110. Et 
custos, etc. These two verses seem to be little more than or- 
namental ; but see Pausanias, ix. 31 ; Mythology, p. 236. — cus- 
tos, the guardian against, the keeper-away of. We call the boy 



book iv. 84-126. SOI 

who keeps birds from the corn a bird-keeper. How Priapus 
kept away the thieves we never could clearly see, unless it was 
that the sight of his image reminded them of him, and made 
them dread his power and vengeance. — falce saligna. A hook 
made of willow was usually placed in his right hand. — 111. 
Hettespontiaci. He was a god of Lampsacus on the Hellespont. 
■ — tutela Priapi, i. e. Priapus, a Grsecism. — 1 1 2. pinos : see 
v. 141 ; Ec. vii. 65. — cui talia curae, i. e. the bee-master.- — 
114. labore duro, i. e. digging and planting. — imbris, water. 
He uses this term, because in watering plants we rain on 
them as it were. It would appear from this place, and from 
Colum. x. 14*7, that the ancient watering-pots had roses like 
our own. Cf. v. 32. 

116-148. Digression on gardens. — traham, i.e. contraham, 
take in, shorten. Virgil seems to have been the first of the 
Latin poets who used this metaphor, taken from navigation, 
which afterwards became so common. Cf. ii. 44. — cura co- 
lendi, culture. The idea of care and attention is included. — 
biferi rosaria Paesti. Here, as usual, the adj. belongs pro- 
perly to the first subst. Paestum, called by its Grecian 
founders Posidonia, lay south of Naples on the gulf of its own 
name ( Golfo di Salerno) ; it was celebrated for its roses : see 
Flora, v. Rosa. — 120. potis rivis, i. e. being watered. For the 
plants here named, see the Flora.— 122. in ventrem, into belly, 
i. e. would swell. Crescere in ungues, Ov. Met. ii. 479 ; crescere 
in caput, Id. ib. v. 547- — sera comantem, late-flowering. Theo- 
phrastus (H. PI. vi. 6) says that the narcissus flowered very 
late, after the rising of Arcturus, and about the autumnal 
equinox. Coma is metaphorically the flower: see v. 137. — 
125. Namqiie. He gives an instance that he had seen of the 
profitable nature of a garden. — Oebaliae, sc. urbis, i. e. Ta- 
rentum, which was said to have been founded by a colony 
from Laconia, of which country Oebalus was one of the my- 
thic kings. — 126. niger Galaesus. The Galaesus was the 
stream that watered the territory of Tarentum: though its 
course is short, it is of some depth (see Hist, of Rome, p. 471), 
and its waters are clear : hence he calls it dark, in opposition 
probably to the Jiavus Tibris and other rivers of Italy which 



302 GEORGICS. 

were usually turbid.— -flaventia culta, the yellow fields of corn. 
— 127- Corycium senem. An old man from Corycus in Cilicia, 
famous for its cultivation of saffron. It is doubted whether 
this man was a freedman, or one of the Ciliciau pirates, whom, 
as Servius tells us on the authority of Suetonius, Pompeius 
Magnus, after his victory over them, settled in Calabria. (Hist, 
of Rome, p. 364.) — relicti ruris, of neglected land ; either, as 
is most probable, on account of its worthlessness, or as being 
successive, i. e. left out by the surveyors when measuring out 
lands to colonists. — 128. necfertilis, etc. 'That land (ilia segei) 
would neither feed oxen nor sheep, nor yield wine.' Tarentum 
was famous for its sheep ; and the wine of its Aulon (AvXuv), — 
probably the vale of the Galaesus, — in the opinion of Horace 
(C. ii. 6, 18) did not yield to that oi" Falernum itself. — 130. in 
({////lis. amid the bushes and briars with which the land was 
overgrown, or perhaps in the ground which had been covered 
with them. — rarum olus. Olus is the garden-plants that were 
used for food, garden-stuff in the language of our peasantry : 
rarum is interpreted, 'planted in rows or drills.' — ISl.premens, 
cultivating, planting: see ii. 346. — vescum, small, sc. with re- 
spect to its seeds: see on iii. 175. — animo, in his (contented) 
mind. Most MSS. read animis. — revertens domum, coming in 
from his work in his garden. — inemplis, unbought ; the pro- 
duce of his garden. — 134. Primus carpere, i. e. carpebat, inf. 
hist.; or, as we rather think, primus fuit carpere. — 135. Et 
cum, etc. ' And even when winter was splitting the rocks with 
frost.' This power of the frost is well known. — 137. comam, 
the flower: v. 122. — tondebat. The last syllable is made long 
as being in arsis. — increpitans, mocking, deriding, as having 
beaten them. For this sense of the verb, see Caes. B. G. ii. 15 ; 
Liv. i. 7 ; Flor. i. 1 : or it may be, chide for their delay, as 
Aen. iii. 455. — 139. Ergo, etc. In consequence of the nume- 
rous and early flowers which he had, he of course had plenty 
of bees and honey, and his bees were the first to swarm. — 

141. tiliae. This is the reading of all the MSS. except the 
Med., which has tilia. The fondness of the bees for the blos- 
som of the lime-tree is well known. — pinus: see v. 112. — 

142. Quotque in jlore, etc. This is expressed in that round- 



book iv. 127-154. 303 

about way to which our poet was but too much inclined. The 
meaning is, that whatever promise of fruit the tree made when 
in blossom in the spring, was always sure to be verified in the 
autumn. He uses poma for the fruitful blossoms, those that 
promise fruit. — 144. Ille etiam seras, etc. 'He also planted 
elms in rows, and pears and thorns and planes.' Seras, slow- 
growing, according to Wagner and others ; but that is not the 
character of the elm. Heyne and Voss say ' full-grown,' and 
that it is of transplantation he speaks : this however does not 
seem probable ; we rather think that serus here expresses 
durability. — 145. Eduram, very hard. E in composition is 
frequently intensive ; ex. gr. equidem, ecastor, edico, edoceo, 
ementior. — 146. Jamque ministrantem, etc., even now large 
enough to yield a shade to those that sat drinking beneath it : 
see ii. 70. — 148. atque aliis, etc. Columella attempted in his 
tenth book to complete the subject, but with no great suc- 
cess. 

149-218. Manners and customs of the bees. — pro qua mer- 
cede, for which reward. He makes the bees, like men (with 
whom all through he assimilates them), to labour with a view 
to the reward, instead of the reward being a thing of which 
they had no previous conception, and which was given in con- 
sequence of their labours. — 151. Curetum sonitus, etc. The 
well-known story of the infancy of Jupiter : see Callim. Hymn, 
in Jovem ; Mythology, p. 79. — pavere. The poet would seem 
to intimate that they then merely collected the honey and 
carried it to the mouth of the infant deity, who afterwards 
gave them the art of laying it up. — 153. Solae communes 
natos, etc. The reward he gave them was this, that they 
alone of all animals, beside man, should live in the social state, 
dwell as it were in the one town, and, foreseeing the future, 
lay up provisions for it. The poet, in his zeal to exalt the 
bees, seems to have forgotten the ants, who, except in the 
construction of combs, must in the opinion of the ancients 
fully have equalled the bees in knowledge and industry : see 
i. 186. — consortia. A variation of the preceding communes. 
They have their young and their dwellings in common. — 
154. agitant, i. e. agunt. — magnis legibus. By 'great laws' he 



304 GEORGICS. 

may mean higher laws than those which other animals were 
under. Magnis is however more probably merely an enno- 
bling epithet of legibus. — certos Penates, a fixed abode : cf. 
Aen. viii. 39. Lar certus, Hor. Ep. i. 7, 58. — 157. Experiun- 
tur, i.e. sustinent. — in medium quaesita: see i. 127. — 158. 
Namque aliae, etc. He now proceeds to the details of their 
policy. He repeats much of this, Aen. i. 430. — victu, i. e. 
victui, to the victualling of their town.— -foedere pacto. Like 
men, they had made a regular agreement and division of la- 
bour. — 159. Exercentur, Mid. voice. — agris, in the fields. 
These are the farmers and country-people. — pars intra, etc., 
the builders. — 160. Narcissi lacrimam. The narcissus is used 
for lilies in general. We know not exactly what is meant by 
the tear of the flowers : it cannot be, as Heyne explains it, 
" guttam, nectar, humorem melleum, seu dulcem, quern imus 
florum calyx exsudat," for that would rather be the honey. 
Theophrastus tells us (De Caus. PI. i. 4) that the lilies were 
propagated by means of their tears {laKpva), which appears 
to have been a kind of gum or resin which exuded from them. 
— de cortice, sc. of the willows, elms, and other suitable trees. 
— gluten', see v. 40. — 162. aliae, the nurses, tutors, and such 
like. — spent gentis, the young : see Ec. i. 15. — educunt, lead 
out, teach to fly, to gather honey, etc. It can hardly be, as 
Heyne understands it, to lead out swarms. — aliae, etc., an- 
other class stow up the honey in the cells. — 165. Sunt quibus, 
etc., to another portion is allotted the task of mounting guard 
at the gates. These have besides the charge of watching the 
state of the weather, easing those that arrive of their burdens, 
and driving away the lazy drones — sorti, an abl., like ruri, 
luci, vesperi, parti : see Forbiger on Lucr. i. 977. 

170. Ac veluti, etc. He compares the division and fervour 
of labour in the beehive lo that of the Cyclopes in the caverns 
of Aetna when forging the thunderbolts. — massis, sc. metalli. 
— properant, sc. facere. Propero and festino are frequently 
thus used with an ace. of the object. — taurinis follibus, in 
bellows made of ox-hide. All the operations in a forge are 
here very accurately enumerated. — 173. gemit, sc. with the 
blows on the anvils. — impositis, sc. on the blocks ; kv ai^oderu), 



book iv. 157-203. 305 

Horn. II. xviii. 476. It is an abl. abs. — In numerum, in har- 
mony, m-a pvO^ov: see Ec. vi. 27. — 178. Munere qiiamque 
sno, each in his appointed sphere. — munire, i. e.Jingere, edifi- 
cari. — daedala tecta, their ingeniously-constructed abodes. 
Daedalus (from SaicdXXw, whence the artist Daedalus) is one 
of the words for which he is indebted to Lucretius. — 180. 
midta node, late in the night ; properly, in the evening (see v. 
186), as all animals hasten home before it is dark. — pascun- 
tur: cf. ii. 375; iii. 314. He here enumerates the principal 
plants on which they fed. — pinguem. Probably on account of 
the honey-dew that lay on \t.—ferrugineos : see on i. 467. — 
187- corpora carant, refresh themselves by taking food: cf. 
Aen. iii. 511 ; viii. 607. — mussant, i. e. fremunt: cf. Aen. xi. 
454. — in noctem, for the night: cf. Aen. vii. 7. — sopor suus, 
sleep adapted to them, sleep of the bees : cf. Aen. v. 832 ; 
vi. 641. 

191. stabulis. This word, like praesepibus, v. 168, in our 
opinion spoils the harmony of the imagery. In the very next 
verse but one we have moenia urbis ! — credunt caelo, trust to 
the skies, say the interpreters. We would rather understand 
se after credunt, as Nee dubio se credere caelo, Quint. Deck xiii. 
17. — Euris, high winds: see ii. 339. — 195. saburram, ballast. 
— inania nubila (like arida nubila, iii. 198), wind and clouds, 
without rain. — 198. Quod neque concubitu, etc. This was the 
prevalent opinion among the ancients. — in Venerem solvunt, 
Xuovai els aypociaia : see iii. 97. — 201. ipsae, of themselves,, 
each alone. — Quirites, citizens. — aulasque et cerea regna re- 
fingunt, ' they re-form (i. e. continually form) their palaces 
and waxen realms.' The meaning seems to be, as appears 
from v. 206 seq., that the succession of the race is thus for 
ever kept up, and consequently new abodes formed for them. 
— 203. Saepe etiam, etc. These three verses, 203-205, it is 
plain, do not cohere with v. 202, while v. 206 unites with it 
closely. Wagner is of opinion that Virgil wrote them in the 
margin after the poem was finished, whence they were after- 
wards taken into the text : he does not however seem to 
think that they were intended to form part of the poem. We 
think however with Heyne, that they come in very well after 



306 GEORGICS. 

v. 196 ; and it is probable that the poet intended them for that 
place, but that the copyist mistook his mark. On this sup- 
position it must have been only in a corrected copy which 
was found after his death that these verses first occurred. — 
207. Excipiat, receives them, i. e. they have. Cf. ii. 345 ; Aen. 
i. 276 ; iii. 318. — septima aestas. It is now the prevalent opi- 
nion, we believe, that bees do not live more than a year. — 
Stat fort una domus, the prosperity of the house (i. e. the race) 
remains. 

210. Praeterea regem, etc. The eminent loyalty of the bees. 
— et, i. e. aut. — 211. Lydia, sc. when it had kings, before the 
time of Cyrus. — Medus Hydaspes. The river, as usual, put 
for the people. The Hydaspes, however, is a river of India, 
not of Media ; and we agree with Wagner in regarding this 
as one of the places where Virgil was napping. — 213. rupere 
Jidem (an aorist), they break their faith. The allusion here 
is to an Eastern army, who, if their leader falls, disband and 
plunder their own camp. — crates favorum, the wickers of their 
combs; alluding to their artificial structure. — 215. admirantur, 
look up to with reverence. — hello, i. e. to the weapons of the 
enemies. 

219-222. Opinion that the bees partake of the divine na- 
ture. — His signis, sc. ducti. Seme take this as an abl. abs. — 
exempla, proofs. — haustus Aetherios, aethereal draughts. The 
soul of the world or divine mind, of which the poet here 
speaks, was by the Pythagoreans and other philosophers re- 
garded as aether or the highest and purest flame; and as this 
was held to be of a liquid nature, animate beings were sup- 
posed to drink it in. — Terras, etc. : see Ec. iv. 51. — 223. Hinc 
pecudes, etc. The construction is : Hinc peendes, etc., arces- 
sere sibi tenuis vitas; quemque nascentem being parenthetic. — 
hue (as hinc, v. 223), into this divine mind, this aethereal sub- 
stance. — 226. Omnia, sc. animalia. — nee morti esse locum, nor 
is there room for death, i. e. there is no death. Cf. Aen. iv. 
319. — in numerum, into the number, i. e. to go among. — alto, 
etc. This is merely explanatory of the preceding words. 

228-250. Manner of taking the honey. — Si quando, etc. 
The commencement of this paragraph is very obscure, and 



book iv. 207-228. 307 

has caused great perplexity to the commentators; partly owing 
to the variety of readings, partly, in our opinion, to the poet's 
system of artificial expression. First, the reading of the Med. 
and of Servius in v. 228 is augustam, which is followed by 
Heyne and Voss, who see in it a reference to the regal state 
given by the poet to his bees. The Rom. and most other 
MSS. read angustam, which is adopted by Wagner and Jahn, 
who regard augustam, as being too splendid an epithet for a 
beehive. We are not of their opinion, and augustam is in 
our mind confirmed by the following thesauris. Secondly, in 
v. 229, some MSS. read haustus, as Servius appears to have 
done, but the most and best have haustu. Thirdly, in v. 230 
the general reading is ora fove ; but Servius tells us that there 
was another reading, ore fave, which seems to have been the 
only one known to Philargyrius, who quotes as explanatory 
of it the following verses of Ennius (xvi. 30) : Insidiantes hie 
vigilant, partim requiescunt, Contecti gladiis, sub scutis, ore 
faventes. Ore fave, he says, is " cum religione ac silentio ac- 
cede," which agrees tolerably well with augustam. Wagner 
says that this reading originated in the wrong reading, haustus, 
which caused ora to be changed into ore, and that then the 
common expression ore fave suggested itself at once to the 
minds of the copyists. With respect to the interpretation we 
think the difficulty in v. 228 is entirely owing to the critics 
not recollecting the practice of the poets to omit the verb 
governing the first subst. We may therefore suppose sedem 
to be governed by invado, appropinquor, or some verb of 
similar import. Relino is properly to take off the covering of 
pitch, gypsum, etc., with which the ancients stopped the mouths 
of the vessels in which they kept their wine. As the cells in 
the comb which contain the honey are always carefully closed, 
the poet may have regarded them as a number of amphorae, 
dolia, or cadi, in a cellar, and he therefore employs the term 
thesauris, treasure- or store-houses. The constr. is relines 
mella servata thesauris. The interpretation of what follows 
is much more difficult, and the only explanation we can offer 
is as follows. The construction is Prius sparsus (mid. verb) 
fove ora haustu aquarum, i. e. he was to sprinkle himself and 



308 GEORGICS. 

to gargle his mouth with water. Columella says (ix. 14): 
Verum maxime custodiendum est curatori cum alvos tractare 
debebit, utpridie castus sit ab rebus venereis, neve temidentus, nee 
nisi lotus ad eas acceded, abstineatque redolentibus esculentis, 
ut sunt salsamenta et eorum omnia eliquamina, item que foe- 
tentibus acrimoniis allii vel ceparum ceterarumque rerum simi- 
lium. Here we have the washing expressly mentioned, and the 
gargling at least implied. — 230.fumos sequaces, the persecuting 
smoke, the smoke that will drive them away. The ancients 
did not smother their bees, as we so needlessly and barbarously 
do ; they only drove them back in the hive or set them asleep 
with smoke, while they took away a part of the combs. — prae- 
tende, hold out before you. 

231. Bis gravidos, etc. This is another of our poet's con- 
torted expressions ; the simple meaning of Avhich is, that the 
bee-masters take the honey twice a-year. Fetus is the pro- 
duction, sc. of the bees, i. e. the honey which the bee-masters 
cog tint, gather or take. The remainder of the verse tells the 
same thing in simpler language. — 232. Taygete, etc. A very 
beautiful and poetic mode of saying, ' when the Pleiades (of 
whom Taygete was one) rose,' i. e. in the end of April or be- 
ginning of May. — Plias for Pleias is the reading of the Med. 
and other good MSS. : the latter is usually a trisyllable. — 
terris, to the earth. — honestum, handsome: see iii. 81. — et 
Oceani, etc. He represents her as bounding, like a huntress 
or a dancer, from the surface of the Ocean, which, in con- 
formity with Homer, he views as a river: see Mythology, 
p. 36. — Aid eadem, etc., or when the same constellation sets, 
i. e. in the beginning of November : see i. 221. He says that 
the Pleias flies from the Fishes, because in the tables of the 
celestial signs which the ancient astronomers constructed, the 
hinder part of Taurus (in which the Pleiades are situated) is 
turned toward Aries, after which comes Pisces. — 235. Tristior, 
sc. Taygete, having lost her former joyousness. — 236. Illis 
ira, etc. A warning to the person who is taking the honey to 
be on his guard against the stings of the bees. They are, he 
says, excessively irritable by nature. — laesae, when provoked. 
— Morsibus, in their bites, i. e. stings. — spicida caeca, invisible 



book iv. 230-248. 309 

darts. — 238. Adfixae (mid. verb), when they attach them- 
selves. — in vidnere, in the act of wounding. The bees were 
supposed to die when they lost their stings: Plin. xi. 18. — 
239. Sin duram melues, etc. ' If you apprehend the severity 
of winter, etc. (i. e. if you wish to preserve the stock through 
the winter), you will take pity on their broken spirit and their 
ruined affairs.' — 241. At, but, i. e. at least. At comes thus 
frequently after si : cf. Aen. i. 542. Si Mi sunt virgae ruri 
at mihi tergum domi est, Plaut. Bac. ii. 3, 131. Sin collega 
quid aliud malit at sibi darent L. Volumnium adjtitorem, Liv. 
x. 26. — suffire thymo, sc. alvearia, to fumigate with thyme. 
As Columella (ix. 14) and Pliny (xi. 15) recommend cow- 
dung for this purpose, it has been proposed to read fimo for 
thymo ; but the present reading may be defended from iElian 
(N. A. i. 58) and the Geoponics (xv. 2, 37). 

242. Nam saepe, etc. ' For if you leave these empty combs, 
they will become places of shelter for the following pests.' — 
ignotus, unperceived. — 243. Stellio : see v. 13. The i is here 
ay on account of the metre. — cubilia. This is properly the 
lying- or sleeping-place, but it is here (like nidos, v. 1 7) used 
for the occupants, sc. the larvae of the blattae. — congesta, be- 
cause they are deposited in a great number in the same place. 
The meaning of the passage is this : the larvae, heaped up by 
the light-shunning blattae, devour the combs ; adedere being 
understood from the preceding adedit. — blattis. From Pliny's 
description of the blatta (xi. 28), which he says is a kind of 
scarabseus, it might appear to be the black beetle. — Immunis, 
free from tax or duty ; a term of the Roman law. — crabro, the 
hornet. — imparibus, unequal, as being much superior to those 
of the bees. — se immiscuit, gets into the empty combs (v. 239), 
and thus mixes with the bees. — 246. tineae, sc. hie sunt. Ver- 
miculi qui tineae vocantur, Colum. ix. 14. Horace (S. ii. 3, 
119) joins the blattae and tineae together as destroyers of 
couch-covers, etc. They are probably two kinds of moths. — 
invisa Minervae. Alluding to the well-known transformation 
of Arachne into a spider : Ov. Met. vi. init. — 248. Quo magis, 
etc. A direction to the bee-master, on the other hand, not to 
leave them too much honey, as it only makes them lazy. — 



310 GEORGICS. 

250.foros, the cells. Fori is properly a flat surface with divi- 
sions on it : hence it is used of the seats in a theatre, the beds 
in a garden, the deck or rowers' benches in a ship.— -Jioribus, 
i. e. with the pollen or produce of the flowers : see v. 54. — 
horrea, the granaries, i. e. the combs. 

251-280. Diseases of bees and their cure. — quoniam, etc., 
as life brings casualties to bees as well as men. Nostros casus 
is ' chances such as we experience.' — 253. Quod jam, etc. 
Verses 253-263 are parenthetic. — alius color, a different co- 
lour. — voltum. Perhaps here, the whole body. — luce caren- 
tum, i. e. mortuorum. — 257. pedibus connexae. Elsewhere 
(Aen. vii. 66), when describing a swarm of bees that had set- 
tled, he says, pedibus per mutua nexis ; but as this is never 
the case with sickly kces, sooner than charge the poet with 
gross ignorance, it is better to say with Wagner, " Cape haec 
de suis cujusque apis pedibus inflexis et inter se nexis, ut in 
morientibus insectis videre licet."— -fame, sc. inedia.— 259. 
contracto frigore pigrae. The simple meaning of this would 
seem to be : ' idle from the cold they had taken.' The critics 
however think that it means, contracted with the cold, as 
Mori contractam cum te cogunt frigora, Phaedr. iv. 24, 20 ; 
Contractusque leget, Hor. Ep. i. 7, 12. In this case the 
poet would, in his usual manner, have joined the part, to the 
subst. to which it does not belong. — 260. tractim, i. e.jugiter, 
continuo. A term adopted from Lucretius, who has (iii. 529) 
per artus Ire alios tractim gelidi vestigia mortis. — 262. solli- 
citum, i. e. sollicitatum, opwofxevov. — stridit, sounds. We have 
no word which will accurately give the sense of strido in this 
place : it means the sound which the waves of the sea make 
when running back after having rushed up on the beach. — 
Aestuat, toaxs.—fornacibus, in the oven or furnace. It cannot 
be the limekiln, as Voss thinks, for that makes no noise. 

264. Hie jam, etc. He now comes at length to the reme- 
dies. — galbaneos odores, i. e. strong-scented galbanum : cf. i. 
56. — arundineis canalibus, troughs made of reeds. — -fessas, sc. 
morbo, i. e. aegras. — tunsum gallae saporem, pounded galls. — 
admiscere, sc. melli. — 269. Defruta. Wine boiled down till it 
becomes thick and sweet : see on i. 295. — Psithia : see ii. 93. 



book iv. 250-287. 311 

— passos racemos, raisins. — Cecropium, Attic, as it abounds 
on Mount Hyraettus. — 271. amello : see the Flora.— uno de 
cespite, from one sod, i. e. in the one spot, from the one root ; 
expressed in our poet's usual manner. — silvam. He uses this 
word to express the number of its leaves or stalks : cf. i. 76. — 
274. Aureus ipse, etc. The centre of the flower (i. e. the 
disc) is yellow ; its numerous petals are of a dark blue, like 
those of the violet. Croceum pro corpore jiorem Jnveniunt, 
foliis medium cingentibus alhis, Ovid, Met. iii. 509, of Narcis- 
sus. — 276. Saepe deum, etc., the altars of the gods are often 
adorned with festoons formed of it. Though this verse is in 
all the MSS., an acute critic (Weichert, De vers, injur, sus- 
pect, p. 63) suspects it to be an interpolation : he notes its 
neecllessness, its languor, the change of tense, and doubts if 
the word torques could be properly used of garlands of flowers. 
Jahn and Forbiger agree with Weichert, whose opinion ap- 
pears to us also to be highly probable. Wagner defends the 
verse. — tonsis, sc. ovibus, cropt. — 278. Mellae. This river, 
which rises in the Alps, flows by the city of Brixia (Brescia) 
and joins the Po. — odorato, fragrant. 

281-294. Mode of restoring stocks of bees when totally 
lost. — proles, sc. apium. — genus, etc., i. e. nova stirps generis. 
— 283. Arcadii magistri, sc. apium, [j.e\tTTovpyds,i.e. Aristaeus, 
whom some made a native of Arcadia : see Mythology, p. 329. 
• — Pandere : a Lucretian term. — 285. Insincerus, corrupted; as 
we say, unsound for rotten. — tulerit, i. q. protulerit.—famam, 

the memorable thing. — 287. fortunata, evdaipuv, opulent 

Pellaei Canopi, i. e. of Alexandria and its vicinity, which 
city was founded near the Canobic mouth of the Nile by 

Alexander the Great, who was born at Pella in Macedonia 

stagnantem, sc. when it has overflowed. — pictis faselis, in their 
painted or ornamented boats. The faselus, probably so named 
from its resemblance to the bean of that name (i. 227), was a 
small boat : in Egypt it was made of potter's earth, and the 
people in the time of the inundation used to pass in these 
boats from one town to another: Strab. xvii. p. 788. Juvenal 
(xv. 127) says of the Egyptians in his time, Parvula fictilibus 
solitum dare vela faselis, Et brevibus pictae remis incumbers 



312 GEORGICS. 

testae. Savary, duke of Rovigo, tells us in his Memoirs (c. 8), 
that when the French were in Egypt under Buonaparte, they 
often saw coming down the Nile whole rafts, as it were, com- 
posed of earthen pots ingeniously joined together with their 
mouths turned down, so that the included air kept them afloat. 
They were covered with mats for the people to lie on, and the 
raft had a rudder fixed to it. — 290. urguet, presses on, sc. 
Egypt or Syria. — 293. coloratis, i. e. dark-coloured ; as we call 
the negroes, men of colour.— jacit salutem, repose their hope 
of safety, i. e. of having bees. For the critical examination 
of this paragraph, see Excursus X. 

295-31 i. Description of the mode of obtaining bees — 
Exigttus, etc. The simple meaning of the three following 
verses is: they build a chamber, just large enough to contain 
the carcass of a young bullock and the men who are to kill 
him. Florentinus, who (Geop. xv. 2) gives a full description 
of the mode of proceeding, says that the place should be ten 
cubits high, and its length and apparently its breadth of ten 
cubits also. — ipsos ad usas, for that very purpose. — contractus, 
drawn in, made narrow. — 296. angusti imbrice tecti, with the 
tiling of a narrow roof. — obliqua luce, letting in light obliquely. 
He would seem to say that they were to be so constructed as 
to exclude the wind. Florentinus merely says there was to 
be a window in each side : he also mentions the door, and 
says that all of them were to be closely luted, when the bullock 
had been killed, so as to exclude the air and wind. — 299. bima 
fronte, on his two-year-old brow. Florentinus says he should 
be thirty months old. — huic geminae, etc. The poet seems to 
have made a mistake here ; for Florentinus says, that when he 
is brought into the house, a number of young men get round 
him, and beat him with sticks till they have broken all his 
bones and killed him, and that then they close up his mouth, 
nostrils, etc. with pitched cloths, and so leave him, — spiritus 
oris, his mouth, his breath. — plagis, with blows of the sticks. 
— per integram pellem. The skin was to be broken on no ac- 
count, Florentinus tells us. — 303. ramea costis. They were to 
lay under the carcass boughs of trees and fresh thyme and 
casia, the favourite plants of the bees — 305. Hoc geritur, etc. 



book iv. 290-327. 313 

This is done in the beginning of the spring. — rubeant, blush, 
are bright. — 308. Interea, etc. Florentinus says that in the 
third week the door and windows are to be opened (except 
the window facing the wind, if there should be a strong wind 
blowing) ; and when the animal matter appears to have become 
animated they are to be closed again, and on the eleventh day 
the place will be found full of bees. This clears the whole 
mystery, for we now see how the queen-bee could get in and 
deposit her eggs in the putrid flesh. — Aestuat, ferments. — 310. 
Trunca pedum, wanting the feet ; the orba pedum of Lucre- 
tius (v. 835). Truncus and orbus take a gen, after them, on 

the same principle as pauper, inops, egens, etc. do stridentia 

pennis, whizzing with wings. — 311. Miscentur, they mingle 
together : mid. voice. — aera carpunt, like viam carpunt. — sa- 
gittae, sc. erumpunt. — 314. Parthi. These people, as is well 
known, were famed for archery : he calls them lev es, as they 
fought on horseback. 

315-332= Quis, etc. He had already told who it was, v. 283. 
— extudit, hammered out, i. e. invented. — experientia, disco- 
very. — ingressus cepit, began. — 317 .fugiens, flying, i. e. leaving 
in haste, in consequence of misfortune : cf. Ec. i. 4. — 319. ca- 
put, the head or origin of the stream. Burmann says it is i. q. 
ostium, the mouth of the river ; but though capita is i. q. ostia, 
Caes. B. G. iv. 10 ; Liv. xxxiii. 41, we have met no instance 
of this sense of the sing. noun. The epithet sacrum also 
seems to refer to the fount. — extremi. This adj. properly be- 
longs to fons. — amnis. The Peneus, v. 317. — 320. adfatus, sc. 
est. Wagner says however that it is used for the obsolete part. 
adfans. — 321. Cyrene. The daughter of the Peneus and mo- 
ther of Aristaeus by Apollo, who was called Thymbraeus, from 
the river Thymbrius in the Troas, on the banks of which he 
had a temple. — 324. Invisum fatis, an object of enmity or dis- 
like to the fates, i. e. unlucky — 326. En etiam, etc. ' So far 
from your obtaining heaven for me, I lose what was my glory 
in this mortal life.'- — 327. Quern mihi, etc. 'Which, while pur- 
suing tillage and pasturage, I discovered by making a variety 
of experiments ;' i. e. the art of keeping bees. — te matre, 'though 
you, a goddess, are my mother.' — relinquo, I abandon, i. e. am 

p 



314 GEORGICS. 

forced to abandon. — 329. felices silvas, orchards, etc. — inter- 
fice, destroy : a Lucretian term (iii. 885). — molire, wield. — 
332. laudis, i. q. honoris, v. 326. 

333-356. thalamo subfluminis alii. The meaning of this 
seems to be : ' in her chamber beneath the deep river ;' for 
thalamus could not, we believe, be used of the abode of the 
river-god.- If this is the sense, it is very ill expressed. — 335. 
Carpebant, were spinning : i. 390. — hyali colore, with the 
colour of glass, i. e. caerulean or sea-green, the colour worn 
by the water-nymphs. — saturo. This adj. properly belongs to 
vellera. — 336. Drymoque, etc. He gives a string of the names 
of the nymphs, in imitation of Homer and Hesiod, in which 
practice he was followed by Ovid. The object of both poets 
Avas probably to exhibit their learning ; but these names may 
have had a charm for their readers who understood Greek. — 
338. Ncsaee, etc. This verse is wanting in all the good MSS. 
—jlava, fair-haired, blond. — Ambae auro, sc. ornatae. — 343. 
Ephyre. The final e is in arsis, and is not to be elided. — Asia. 
From the Asia palus, i. 383. — 344. Arethusa: see Ec. x. 1. 
One might feel surprised to find her here who was not a 
water-nymph, but Cyrene herself was hunting when Apollo 
fell in love with her. — 345. curam inanem Vulcani. The story 
told by Homer (Od. viii. 266 seg.) of Vulcan catching Mars 
and Venus in adultery ; but why he should call it cura inanis 
we do not see, unless he means to insinuate that they renewed 
their intercourse. — 347- Chao, down from Chaos, i. e. from 
the beginning of the world. — densos, numerous. — 350. vitreis, 
glassy, i. e. bright ; or it may refer to the colour, v. 335. — 
353. procul, from afar. This is used to give an idea of the 
distance of the abode of Cyrene from the surface of the river. 
— 355. genitoris, of thy sire. Though Pater is applied to the 
river-gods as well as all other gods of the Roman religion (see 
on i. 121), the same is not the case with Genitor. — Penei. A 
dissyllable, from ILrjreos for Urjveios. 

357-373. nova, new, additional ; for she had been already 
startled, v. 350. — Mi. As being the son of a god, and to be a 
god himself. — 361 . Curvata, etc. He represents the river as 
parting its waters and forming an arched passage, along which 



book iv. 329-376. 315 

Aristaeus went down into the subterranean region in which 
all the rivers of the earth had their origin. — misit, i. q. trans- 
misiL- — 364*. Speluncis, etc. Each river would hence appear 
to have its origin in a deep pool contained in a cavern, and 
thence to pursue its course between banks overgrown with 
trees. Heyne thinks that he must have had before him some 
elder (i. e. Greek) poet, who had sung how Oceanus was the 
origin of all things. But he says nothing of the Ocean here, 
and we are but too ready to deny originality to the Latin 
poets, who are in fact much more original than we seem to 
think. — 367- Phasim, Lycum. The former is in Colchis, the 
latter in Pontus, both flowing into the Euxine. — caput, the 
head or fount: see v. 319. — Enipeus. A river of Thessaly. — 
se erumpit, bursts forth : see i. 445. — 369. pater Tiberinus. 
He gives here to the Tiber alone the honorific title of Pater, 
having perhaps Ennius in view. — Auiena Jluenta, the stream 
of the Anio. Tiberina jluenta, Aen. xii. 35 ; cf. Aen. iv. 143 ; 
vi. 327- — 370. Saxosusque sonans, stony-sounding, i. e. sound- 
ing by running over stones. The Hypanis {Bog) is a river 
of Sarmatia in Europe. — Mysus Cdicus, the Ca'icus of 
Mysia in Asia Minor. — 371. Et gemina, etc. The river-gods 
were usually represented with horns ; he says those of the 
Eridanus were gilded, probably to denote the fertility of the 
region through which it ran: cf. i. 217. — mare purpureum. 
This adj. expresses brightness, glow of colour: see on Ec. ix. 
40. The allusion here may be to the bright, phosphorescent 
appearance of the Mediterranean when agitated by the wind 
or by oars. Spiritus Eurorum virides cum purpurat undas, 
Furius ap. Gell. xviii. 1 1 . Mare, Favonio nascente, purpureum 
videtur, Cic. Acad. ii. 33. He however had Od. xi. 242 in 
view. — violentior : cf. ii. 452. This is not the character of the 
Po at the present day, perhaps in consequence of the elevation 
of its bed, its velocity being diminished. — 374. pendentia, 
etc. The chamber whose hanging-roof was formed of sand- 
stone, i. e. the chamber in the rock. — inanis. Because she 
knew she could remedy them. — 376. manibus, etc. She en- 

V. 361. Hoptyvpeov d' ctpa icvfia 7repi<rra9r) ovpe'i Tow. — Od, xi. 242. 

p2 



316 GEORGICS. 

tertains him after the fashion of the heroic age. — ordine, in 
due order. — -f otitis, water. — Germanae, her sister-nymph. — 
tonsis, etc., towels made of wool, which were close-shorn so 
as to be smooth : cf. Aen. i. 702. — reponunt, serve up again 
and again. — 379. Panchaeis, etc., ' the altar burns with Pan- 
chaean fires,' i.e. frankincense burns in the fire on the altar ; ex- 
pressed in our author's usual contorted manner. For Panchaia, 
see ii. 139. — adolescunt: see Ec.viii. 65. — 380. Maeonii Bac- 
chi, of Lydian (i. e. Tmolian, ii. 9S) wine. — carchesia. The 
carcliesium was an oblong vessel with handles at either end : 
see Athen. xi. p. 474 ; Macrob. v. 21. — Nymphas sorores, i. e. 
the Dryades, Napaeae and Naiades, who had destroyed his bees. 
— 383. Centum : a def. for an indef. — Vestam, the fire on the 
hearth, or on the altar. 

387-414. Mode of obtaining a response from the sea-god 
Proteus. The whole of this adventure is imitated from the 
Odyssey, iv. 364-, seq. — Carpathio, etc. Homer makes the 
sea adjacent to Egypt to be the haunt of Proteus. We can- 
not tell what authority our poet had for transferring it to the 
Carpathian sea, which is between Rhodes and Crete, unless 
he intended by it the whole eastern part of the Mediterranean. 
— Neptuni. We would join Neptuni with votes, and not with 
gurgite. — 388. Caeruleus. This is the usual colour of the sea- 
deities. — magnum, etc. ' Who traverses the sea in his chariot 
drawn by sea-horses, who have only the fore feet,' as they ter- 
minate in a fish.This seems to be what he wished to express. 
— metitur. This is a Homeric expression, ireXayos fieya perpi'i- 
aavres and fxerpa tceXevdov. Vir mare metitur magnum, se fiuc- 
tibus tradit, Lucil. ap. Nonium ; Cf. Hor. Epod. iv. 7. — 390. 
Emathiae, of Macedonia. He uses this in the enlarged sense 
which it bore in his own time ; see i. 492. — patriam Pal- 
lenen. We know not what authority he had for making the 
peninsula of Pallene the birthplace of Proteus. — 392. Grand- 
aevMs. Homer styles Nereus d\ios yepu>v. — Quippe, etc. 

V. 387- ITwXetrat ns Sevpo yepajv uXlos vijfieprrjs, 

'AQavaros Upwreiis Aiyvirnos, oare Oakaaatjs 

Tldcrrjs (3ev6ea dlde Uotreidddjvos inrodpojs, — Od, iv. 385. 



sook iv. 379-415. 317 

' Neptune has thought fit to give him this power.' — et, even ; 
exegetic of what precedes. — 395. turpis, ugly, unsightly. — 397. 

eventus secundet, i. e. det eventus secundos 400. Tende. This 

verb would seem properly to belong only to the first subst. 
and injice to be understood with the second. — circum haec, 
aiKplrav-u, against these. — medios aestus, the noontide heat. — 
403. In secreta, sc. loca. He represents the god, like men in 
the south, as taking his siesta or afternoon-sleep. — illudent. sc. 
te. — species, appearances. — 408. leaena. In Homer it is more 
correctly Xewv. It was probably the constraint of the verse 
that made the poet here, and in the preceding line, employ 
the feminine. In giving a mane to the lioness, he shows his 
ignorance of natural history. — Aut acrem, etc. ' he will turn 
himself into fire and water.'- — 410. Excidet, he will fall out of; 
i. e. he will appear so ; for he will still be in them. Abibit is 
to be understood in a similar manner. — 412. contende, straiten, 
draw tight. — incepto, etc. In plain language, 'when sleep began 
to cover his eyes.' Somnus tegeret qitiete ocellos, Catull. 1. 10. 
415—424. liquidum ambrosiae odore?n, the smell of liquid 
ambrosia; the adj., as usual, being joined to the wrong subst. 
This ambrosia is not the solid substance which was the food 
of the gods, but rather ambrosial oil, similar to that with 
which Juno anoints herself in Homer, II. xiv. 171 : see My- 

V. 393. "Os ySr] tu r hbvra, ra r eaabfieva, Trpo t eovra. 

II. i. 70. 

V. 396. To'vy' el ttojs ai) Svvaio Xoxrjaa^vos XeXa(3ea8ai, 
"Os Kev toi e'tTryaiv bdbv Kal fierpa KeXev9ov, 
"Noarov 9' ojs ctti -kovtov eXevaeat ixOvbevra. — Od. iv. 388. 

V. 405. Kcti tot' 67reir' ifiTv fieXeru) Kapros re j3itj re, 

AvQi ex eiv jue/mwra Kal eaavjievov irep aXv^ai. 
Uavra Se yiyvo'/zevos Treipr/aeTai, baa' errl yaiav 
'~EpTrera yivovTai, Kal vSojp, Kal BeairiSaes Ttvp' 
'YjJ.els 5' aare/xtyews exefiev, fiaXXbv re irieZ,eiv. 
'AW' ore Kev dr] a avrbs aveiprjTai eireeoGi, 
ToZos ewv, olov ks KarevvrjOevTa ISyaQe, 
Kat ro're Si) axeaOai re /3£?js, Xvaai re yepovTa, 

Od. iv. 415. 

V. 415. 'Afi(3poalr]v into plva eKaaTip 0f;/ce (pepovaa 
'HSv jxaXa irveiovaav. — Od. iv. 445. 



318 GEORGICS. 

thology, p. 550. — 416. perduxit, anointed. The simple ex- 
pression would have been, quern (or rather quam) perduxit 
toto corpori. — compositis, set in order, arranged. — aura, i. q. 
odor, v. 415. — habilis, active, aphis ad habendum. Adjec- 
tives in -ilis usually denote aptitude, fitness for the act ex- 
pressed by the verb from which they are derived, ex. gr. agilis, 
ductilis, facilis, Jissilis, Jfcxilis, fragilis, etc. — 419. Exesi, sc. 
Jluctibus. — quo, where, i. e. in the cove, at the end of which is 
the cavern. Cf. Aen. i. 159, seq. Here also he expresses him- 
self with his usual ambiguity, for the natural anteced. of quo 
is specus. — 420. in sinus reductos. It is very difficult to de- 
termine the exact meaning of these words here and in Aen. i. 
161. Reductus is, drawn or brought back; reducta vallis (in 
Aen. vi. 703; viii. 609; and Hor. C. i. 17, 17) is a retired 
valley ; and this is the only figurative employment of reductus. 
Heyne understands sinus of the recesses of the cavern, and 
then the sense is plain enough ; but in the passage of the 
Aeneis he understands it of the waves. We own we cannot 
make a definite sense of it, and we are inclined to think that 
the image of the waves striking against a rock or islet out in 
the sea, and thus dividing themselves, which he might have 
seen in the bay of Baiae, and which he afterwards described 
in the Aeneis, may have been in his mind. Reductos sinus 
would then signify curved billows, the waves forming seg- 
ments of a circle, the upper part of the curve coming first to 
the shore. — 121. Deprensis, sc. in tempestate. Cf. Aen. v. 52. 

In patenti Prensus Aegaeo, Hor. C. ii. 16, 1 objice, i. e. ob- 

jectu. He lay behind a rock, to be out of the light. — 424. 
procul, at a little distance. Cf. Ec.vi. 16. — nebulis, "h. e. in 
nebula ex aequore surgere solita." Heyne. We rather think 
it was a miraculous nebula, like that by which Venus rendered 
Aeneas invisible (Aen. i. 412), and that he had the same pas- 
sage of the Odyssey (vii. 15, 41) before him in both places. — 
obscura, i. e. obscurata. 

425-452. Jam rapidus, etc. It was now midsummer, when 

V. 425. T B/xos 8' r/ekios fievov ovpavbv afupifleprjKei, 
Tfjfios up' e£ aXbs elcri yepwv liXios vqfxeprrjs, 



book iv. 416-448. 319 

the Dogstar is in the nocturnal sky, and the heat which he 
brings scorches the thirsty Indians, the people most exposed to 
it : see on v. 293. Rapidus : see Ec. ii. 1 0. — 426. caelo, etc., and 
it was noon, the hottest time of the day. — medium orbem, the 
middle of his path, of the portion of the celestial circle which 
he traverses in the day. — 427. Hauserat, L q. exhauserat, had 
exhausted, i. e. had accomplished. Cf. ii. 398 ; Aen. iv. 383 ; 
ix. 356. Qaam incredibiles hausit calamitates. Cic. Tusc. i. 
35. Exhauri mea mandata, Id. ad Att. v. 13. — siccis, i. e. 
siccatis.—faucibus, i. e. ostiis, or alveis. — coquebant, were ma- 
king boil up. — 432. diversae, scattered, here and there. — 
phocae, the seals. — Ipse, sc. Proteus. — acuunt, whet the ap- 
petites of. — 4-39. clamore magno. He keeps close to Homer 
here ; but silence would seem to have been the surer way. — 
Occupat. To denote the celerity with which he did it. Cf. Aen. 
vi. 424, 635. — miracula rerum, Lq. miras res. — 445. Nam quis, 
i. q. quisnam, ' who then,' rts yap. — neque est. A Grsecism, ovk 
eort, i. e. ov Svrarov 'ion. Cf. Aen. vi. 595. Quod versu dicere 
non est, Hor. S. i. 5, 87. — 44S. velle, sc. fcdlere. — oracula, a 

TLvoiy vtto 'Cecpvpoio, peXaivy <ppitc?j tca\v<p6eis, 
'Ek d' eXOiov Koiparai vtto aireaai yXatyvpoiaiv. 
' Ap,(pl Se piv (puiKai, i'STroSes /caXfjs 'AXoavSv^s, 
'AQpoai evdovaiv ttoXijjs ctXos e%avadv<rai. — Od. iv. 400. 
V. 433. <£oj/cas p.ev rot irpwrov dpi9pi)<jei, Kal eweKTiv' 
Avrap eTcijv fracas TrepTrddueTca, fide 'ISrjTat., 
AeS,erai ev peaayai, vopeis ws nweai p{]Xuiv. — Od. iv. 411. 

V. 438 eireira Se XeKTO Kal avros. 

'HpeTs 8' al^/ i&xovTes eTveaavpeQ'' dptyl Se %<?7pas 
BdXXopev ovS' 6 yepo)v tioXnjs 'eiriXfiQero revvijs' 
'AXX' jjrot ivpiOTiara Xeoiv yever fivyereios, 
Avrap eVeira SpaKwv, Kal irdpSaXis, i)Se peyas ads' 
Tivero 8' vypov vSwp, Kal SevOpeov v^JiTrerrjXov' 
'Hjitets 8' aarepcpeojs exopev rerX?/6n 8vpiij' 
'A\X' ore Sfi p' aviaZ,' 6 yepuv, oXotywia elSus, 
Kat rore Si] p.' eneeaaiv aveipopevos Tcpoaeeiire' 

Ti's vv toi, 'Arpeos vie, Oeibv cvptypaaoeTO (iovXds, 
"0(ppa p eXois deKOvra Xox^adpevos ; reo <re. XP*] > 

"Qs etyar', avrap eyu) piv dpeij36pevos ■KpoaeeiiroV 
OlaOa yepov tL pe ravra TTaparpoTreujv epeeiveis ; 

Od. iv. 453. 



response, i. e. a remedy. — lapsis rebus, my calamity, the loss 
of my bees. — vi multa, strongly, with great effort. — Ardentis, 
etc, 'he twisted his flaming, green eyes.' — -frendens, gnashing 
his teeth.— -fatis, for the fates, i. e. to announce the cause and 
remedy of Aristaeus' misfortunes. 

453-498. He now relates the celebrated tale of the descent 
of Orpheus to Erebus, in order to bring back his wife Eury- 
dice. Virgil is the only extant author who ascribes her death 
to Aristaeus. — 453. Non te nullius, etc. ' Your misfortune is 
not a mere casualty, it results from the anger of a deity,' sc. 
the Nymphs. — exercent, harass, torment. Cf.i. 99; ii. 356; Aen. 
iv. 623 ; v. 779, etc. — Magna has, etc., ' you suffer for a great 
offence.' Cf.i. 502; Aen. xi. 841. — Hand qua quam ob meritum, 
not deservedly made wretched ; for Orpheus had done nothing 
to merit such misery. — ni fata resistant, ' which you will con- 
tinue to suffer unless fate (v. 452) stand in the way,' i. e. point 
out a mode of expiation. — rapta, sc. a morte : see v. 504 ; or 
rapta a te, i. e. in intention. — &5! '. per jliunina, along the banks 
of the river. — moritura, fated to die: see iii. 501. — puella. 
See on Ec. vi. 47. — Servantem, watching, guarding as it were. 
— 460. aequalis, companion, i. e. who were young like herself. 
— supremos, i. q. summos, the tops of; taken from Lucretius, 
i. 275. — -Jierunt, sc. mortem ejus. — ffliodopeiae, etc. Rhodope 
and Pangaeus are mountains of Thrace, which he calls the 
land of Rhesus, who had ruled in it. The Getae, who dwelt 
beyond the Danube (see on iii. 462) are, with the usual dis- 
regard to geographic accuracy, placed here in Thrace. — Ac- 
tias Orithyia. The Athenian princess Orithyia, whom the 
wind-god Boreas carried off to Thrace : see Mythology, p. 383. 

464. Ipse, sc. Orpheus. — cava testudine, i. e. lyra ; which 
Mercury is said to have first formed out of the shell of a tor- 
toise. — Te, sc. Eurydice. While fully acknowledging the pa- 
thos of the repetition of te in this place, and the poetic beauty 
of the subsequent narrative, we cannot help thinking that it is 
too highly wrought for what we are to suppose to be an extem- 
poraneous narration. Were it told in the person of the poet 
himself it would be liable to little objection, for in that case 
time and labour are presupposed. — 467. Taenarias, etc. A 



book iv. 453-483. 321 

cavern on Mount Taenaron in Laconia was supposed to yield 
a passage down to Erebus. — Ditis, of Dis, Orcus or Pluto, the 
god of the underworld. Orcus, in the classics, is always a 
person, never a place : see Mythology, p. 55 L — caligantem, sc. 
se, shrowding itself. — ; formidine, gloom; effect for cause. — 
Manis, the ghosts or shades of the departed — 470. Nesciaque, 
etc. ; a periphrasis of the d/j.el\ixos 'Aicrjs of Homer. Corda 
is i. q. cor, and que is even. — 472. ibant, sc. ad eum. — que, 
even. — agit, sc. eas. — imber, i. q. hiems, "^eifiuv, a storm. — 
475. Matres, etc. These three verses are repeated, Aen. vi. 
306-8, where they are much more in place. — corpora he- 
roum, i. e. heroes : Cf. iii. 369.— circum, sc. est. The region 
where they are now is flowed round by the river of Cocytus, 
filled with black mud and unsightly reeds. He calls it a 
palus, on account of its sluggishness and its spreading itself 
widely. — inamabilis, hateful, by a usual euphemism. Cf. iii. 5. 
— interfusa. This seems to mean 'flowing about'; but it is 
impossible to get a clear idea from this description, which is 
repeated, Aen. vi. 479. — 481. Quin ipsae, etc. Not merely the 
dead, who might be supposed to retain a recollection of what 
used to delight them on earth, but the house and inner Tar- 
tarus of Death (i. e. the dwellers of them), were entranced by 
the strains of Orpheus. — intima Tartara. Tartarus, where 
the wicked were tormented, is described in the Aeneis (vi. 
577) as lying much lower than the rest of Erebus. — Leti. We 
might have expected Orci or Ditis. This gives some coun- 
tenance to our opinion, that the Latin Orcus was Death : see 
Additions to Mythology, p. xii.* — 483. Eumenides, sc.stupu- 
ere. — inhians, sc. in Orpheum, gaping with wonder and de- 
light. — vento, i. e. a vento. It was no longer whirled round by 

V. 472. "Ev6a re vaiovai ipvxal, e'iccoXa Kct{i6vTwv. — Od. xxiv. 14. 
Simulacraque luce carentum. — Lucr. iv. 39. 

V. 475. al o dyepovro 

tyvxai vtt e£ 'Epifievs vexviov KaraTeOveiwTwv, 
~Nv(i([>ai r ', ijWeoi re, 7ro\urXj/rot re yepovres, 
TLapdeviKai t draXai, veoTvevBea Ovfiov exovacu. 

Od. xi. 36. 
P5 



322 GEORGICS. 

the wind, which had itself been hushed to repose by the strains 
of Orpheus. — Ixioniirola orbis, the wheel of the lxionian orb; 
another of our poet's usual contortions of language, for the 
simple Ixion's wheel. Coinp. Hor. C. iii. 11, 15 seq. 

485. Jamque, etc. He supposes the story to be so familiar 
to the reader, that he never tells why Orpheus had descended 
to Erebus, and we now only learn it from his success. — 489. 
Manes. Here used for the rulers of Erebus, Pluto and Pro- 
serpine. — luce sub ipsa, on the very verge of light. — 491. 
victus animi, his mind being overcome, sc. with longing. 
This use of the gen. where we might expect an abl. absol. 
or a Greek ace. is not unfrequent. Cf. truncus pedum, v. 310., 
amens animi, Aen. iv. 203. — tyranni, of the monarch : it is 
used here in its original Greek sense, as it also is Aen. vii. 266. 
— 493. terque fragor, etc. Probably the signal of return to Eu- 
rydice. Virgil perhaps had in view the signal given to Oedipus 
in Sophocles, Oed. Col. 1606. — 496. natantia, swimming. We 
use this word in the same sense. — non tua, sc. Eurydice or 
uxor. — 500. diversa, i. e. in diversam partem. — jjraeterea, any 
longer, ever again. — portitor Orci, Orcus' ferryman, i. e. 
Charon. — passus, sc. est ilium, or perhaps Mam. — 506. Ilia 
quidem, etc. This verse has so little apparent connexion with 
what precedes, that Heyne, Wagner, and others have doubted 
of its genuineness. Voss and Jahn think that an opposition 
is intended between her in this, and him in the following verse ; 
but to this Wagner justly replies, that in such case it would 
be hunc and not ilium in v. 507. To this we may add, that 
the space of seven months does not well accord with this view. 
The interpretation of Forbiger seems to be the most simple, 
supposing it to be a reply to Quidfaceret, etc. ' What could 
he do?' etc., ' Nothing, for she was,' etc. Quidem is there- 
fore i. q. nempe ; still the verse is useless, and were better 
away. — 507. ex ordine, Kade'trjs, running, uninterrupted. A 
Lucretian phrase, ex. gr. i. 499. v. 419. — deserti, deserted, i.e. 
lonely. — haec, these events which I have just related. — 509. 
evolvisse, to have unrolled or unfolded, i. e. gone over, sc. in 
his songs. — tigris. There are no tigers in Thrace, but that 
was nothing to an ancient poet. Our own Shakespeare has a 



book iv. 485-531. 323 

lioness in the forest of Ardennes in France. — agentem, i. q. du- 
centem. Cf. Ec. viii. 17. Aen. v. 833. — 513. Observans, doicevtras, 
having marked or discovered : an aorist part. — noctem, i. e. 
per noctem, the whole night \ong.-~Integrat, i. q. iterat, repeats. 
— 517. Solus, i. e. caelebs, sine uxore; or perhaps simply 
alone. — Hyperboreas, etc. All these names of places far to 
the north of Thrace are only mentioned by way of ornament, 
and to increase our idea of the grief of Orpheus. — Tanaim, 
the Don in Sarmatia or southern Russia. — -Rhipaeis. An 
imaginary mountain-range in the extreme north : see i. 240. 
— 520. spretae, despised, rejected, or deeming themselves to 
be so.— quo munere. This is a very obscure expression, and 
it has of course perplexed the commentators : perhaps the 
best interpretation is to take, with Heyne, munus as equivalent 
to officium, and expressing the pious duty of Orpheus to the 
memory of his wife. If there were sufficient authority for 
the reading spreto, it would remove all the difficulty, as munere 
would then refer to v. 516. — Ciconum matres, the Thracian 

women. Cf. r.475; Aen. ii. 489, etc que, even, that is to 

s&y. —juvenem, i. e. membra juvenis. — marmorea, i. e. white as 
marble: a Lucretian term. — Oeagrius, Thracian ; from king 
Oeagrus, the father of Orpheus. 

528-530. jaciu, with a bound or plunge. — se dedit, gave, 
(i.e. flung) himself. Cf. Aen. ix. 56, SlQ.sub vertice, in an 
eddy or small whirlpool. It appears awkwardly expressed, but 
it means that the water whirled round and round in the spot 
where Proteus had plunged into it.' — At non Cyrene, but 
Cyrene did not do so, i. e. she did not abandon her son. 

531-547. Proteus having told the cause of the loss of the 

V. 511. — 'Qs S' ore HavSapeov Kovp?], ^XwpTjis arjcuv, 
JLaXov deiSycnv, eapos veov \rjra\jikvoio, 
AevSpeuiv ev Trercikoiai KaOeZo/xevr] TrvKivolaiv, 
"Rre Ba/xa rpwrrujaa %eei Tro\vr'iX ea <piovr)v, 
Hold' bfio(pupojjLevi}"lTv\ov <j>l\oi>. — Horn. Od. xix. 518. 
KXcdov dk Xiyews, dSivwrepov ij r oluvol, 
$>rjvai, i] aiyvTTiol ya/ii/zwi/w^es, dial re reuva 
'Ayporai e^eiXovro, Trapos Trereeiva yeveaOai. — 

Id. ib. xvi. 216. 



324? GEORGICS. 

bees, Cyrene supplies the mode of recovering them. — clioros 
agitabat, used to dance. — 535. Tende, hold forth, i. e. offer ; 
from the mode of presenting gifts.— pacem, i. e. veniam, fa- 
vour, forgiveness.— facilis, easy, placable. Cf. Ec. iii. 9. — 
Napaeas, the nymphs of the vcurr] or saltus. He names them 
Dryades, v. 460. — ordine, in due order.— 538. eximios, litt. 
selected (from eximo), especially for sacrifice.-- praestanti cor- 
pore, of superior beauty. He often uses this expression : see 
Aen. i. 75 ; vii. 783, etc. — Lycaei. A mountain of Arcadia, 
of which country he makes Aristaeus an inhabitant. We are 
to suppose from this, that he had come to Thessaly to consult 
his mother, and that he now returns home ; but (v. 317) 
Thessaly would seem to be his abode. The poets however 
had such a love for introducing proper names, that they were 
careless of accuracy. — intacta cervice, i. e. that had never been 
yoked. — ad, at or before. — 545. Lethaea, Lethaean, causing 
oblivion. — Placatam, etc. Heyne, Jacobs, and Wagner are 
inclined to regard this verse as spurious, but it is found in all 
the MSS. Jahn explains it, " Praeterea Eurydicen vitula 
caesa placabis." 

548-558. Hand mora, sc. Jit. — excitat,i. e. erigit. Elapide 
excitari (sepulchrum) Cic. Legg. ii. 27. — 554. monstrum, a 
prodigy, a wonder. — effervere, to boil up, to burst forth from. 
Cf. i. 471. Verrnesque effervere, Lucr. ii. 927. — 557. nubes, 
sc. apium. — uvam, fiorpvlov ; the cluster, resembling a bunch 
of grapes, which the bees form when they settle in a swarm. 

559 to the end. The graceful and elegant conclusion of the 
poem, the first example of such a thing, we believe, in anti- 
quity. Heyne was however for this very reason disposed to 
regard it as being the work, not of Virgil, but of some gram- 
marian. Brunck and Schrader, he says, were of the same opi- 
nion, and Bryant rejected the four last verses. This conclu- 
sion however (unlike the four verses prefixed to the Aeneis) 
is to be found in all the MSS., and in all the ancient annota- 
tors ; the verses are every way worthy of Virgil, and, as 
Weichert very well observes, the use of the gen. oti, instead of 
otii, in v. 564, proves them to have been written before the later 
years of Augustus. — 559. super cultu, i. q. de cidtu. Cf. Aen. 



book iv. 535-566. 325 

i. 750; iii. 348 ; vii. 344 ; x. 839.— Ccesar, etc. : see Life of 
Virgil. — 562. viam adfectat, treads the path. Hi gladiatorio 
animo ad me affectant viam, Ter. Phor. v. 8, 71. Qui ad 
dominas affectant viam, Ter. Heaut. ii. 3, 59. Quod iter 
affectat videtis, Cic. Rose. Amer. 49. — Olympo, i. q. ad Olym- 
pum. Cf. ii. 306 ; Ec. ii. 30. — Parthenope, Naples, so named 
from a Siren of that name, whose tomb was there. — florentem, 
flourishing, enjoying, being happy in ; taken from plants which 
flourish in a genial soil. — studiis, in the occupation : see on 
Ec. ii. 5. — ignobilis, without honour, as compared with the 
fame and honour acquired by military and legislative acts., 
such as Caesar was engaged in at the time. 



EXCURSUS, 



EXCURSUS I. 

THE RIVER OAXER. 

Pars Scythiam et rapidum cretae veniemus Oaxem. — Ec. i. 65. 

The note on rapidum cretae in this verse in Servius is as follows : 
"Hoc est lutulentum, quod rapit cretam. Cretani terrain albam 
dixit ; nam Oaxis fluvius est Mesopotamiae qui velocitate sua rapiens 
albam terram lutulentus efficitur. Vel Oaxis fluvius Scythiae ; in 
Creta insula non est : sed aqua cretei coloris est. Oaxem, Phili- 
sthenes ait Apollinis et Anchilenae filium ; hunc Oaxem in Creta 
oppidum condidisse, quod suo nomine nominavit ut Varro ait : Quos 
magno Anchiale partus adducta dolore, Et geminis capiens tellurem 
Oeaxida palmis Scindere dicta." 

This was evidently the prevalent mode of interpreting this passage 
in antiquity ; we might say the only one, were it not that the asser- 
tion in Creta insula non est might seem to point at one similar to 
that now prevalent. As to the latter part of the note, and the ex- 
tract from Varro Atacinus, whose translation of the Argonautics it 
is taken from, we may safely regard it as nothing more than a dis- 
play of the annotator's learning, for it proves nothing one way or 
the other. 

Vibius Sequester says that in the isle of Crete there was a stream 
named Oaxes : his only authority however was, in Heyne's opinion, 
this verse of Virgil. Politian held Cretae in this verse to be a proper 
name, and he has been followed so generally by the commentators, 
that it looks like presumption in any one now to maintain the old 
interpretation. It has however been done by Salmasius, Duker, 
Voss, Fea, and a few other critics, with whom we cordially agree. 

The Mesopotamia of Servius in this place is not that between the 
Euphrates and the Tigris, but Sogdiana, the Mawer-en-naher of 



328 EXCURSUS 1. 

the Orientals, the region between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, to the 
north of Bactria, so named from its lying between rivers like the 
former. Of the Oxus Polybius says (x. 48, 4), cpeperm 8ia TreXid8os 
X&pas, noWcp ko.\ doXepcp pevpari. We will observe by the way 
that Virgil seems to have been a reader of Polybius ; see on Ec.vii. 4. 
Arrian (De Exp. Alex.iii. 29) says among other things of the Oxus, 
/3a#o? 8e ol>8e Trpos \6yov tov evpeos tiXXa ttoXv Be tl ftadvrepos <a\ 
\jsappo>8r]s; and Curtius Cvii. 10), Hie quia limum veldt turbidus 
semper. We may here observe, that the Latin word creta denoted 
any kind of marly substance. The name of this river in Polybius is 
"0£os, in Arrian and Strabo 7 Q.£os. The change by Virgil into Oaxes 
presents a difficulty ; but in Callimachus (who is followed by Ca- 
tullus) we have 'Qapiav for 'Qpicov with the penult, short. Wagner 
no doubt objects that though a may be inserted after w, it cannot 
after o. We know not on what grounds he makes this assertion, 
but surely it was no greater licence in Virgil to shorten the w than 
in Callimachus to shorten the long L of 'Slpiav. The change of 
termination is also a difficulty, but possibly Virgil wrote Oaxum, 
and the copyists changed it on account of the analogy with Jaxar- 
tes, Araxes, Hydaspes, Euphrates, and so many rivers of the East; 
or the poet himself might have made the change for the same rea- 
son. But Wagner further says, " rapidus sollemne est fluviorum 
epitheton celeritatem indicans, sed ejusmodi epitheta non facile ad 
alium sensum detorta videas. Denique docendum erat rapidus idem 
significare quod rapax, et adjunctum sibi habere genitivum." 

In all probability it was this wrong conception of the original 
meaning of rapidus that caused the current interpretation of this 
place of Virgil. It is thought to be the same as its derivatives 
rapido It., rapide Fr., rapid. We will endeavour to show that this 
is by no means the case ; but we will previously ask a question or 
two of the critics, namely, Can you give a single instance from a 
classic author of such a construction as Oaxes Cretae ? Could any- 
one in writing Latin say Tiberis Italiae, Rkodanus Galliae, Albis Ger- 
maniae} Must not amnis or fluvius always be added ? 

In the following Excursus we will show that adjectives in -idus 
and -ax are properly participials of the present tense, and govern a 
genitive case. Rapidus (from rapio) would therefore appear to be 
nearly equivalent to rapiens and rapax, and to signify carrying away, 
and hence consuming. Thus we find our poet unites it with Sol, 
Sirius, ignis, and aestus, and it is only in this sense that we can 
understand it in Aen. i. 59- Lucretius speaks of the rapidi leones 
(iv. 714), and of the rapidi canes that begirt Scylla (v. 893) ; Ovid 



THE RIVER OAXES. Sl\d 

has rapidis rogis (Tr. i. 7, 20) ; and many other instances might be 
given. That rapidus is i. q. rapax might be thus inferred. Ennius 
says (ii. 46), Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda; which 
verse Lucretius thus imitates (i. 721), Angustoque fretu rapidum 
mare dividit undis. This poet also, having said (i. 15) Et rapidos 
tranant amnes, has only three lines after fluviosque rapaces, evi- 
dently for the sake of varying the phrase. Ovid applies the term 
apax to the Ionian sea (Fast. iv. 567) and to the river Ladon 
(i'b. v. 89), and Lucan (iv. 21) to the Cinga. "We certainly cannot 
give any instance of rapidus governing a genitive except that in 
the text, but we may notice the rapax virtutis of Seneca (Ep. 97, 35). 
We have timidus deorum (Ov. Met. v. 100) and timidus lucis (Sen. 
B.V. 21), gravidus metalli (Ov. Met. x. 531), and gravidus mellis 
(Sil. ii. 220), etc. We therefore see no difficulty in assuming that 
Virgil, following analogy, ventured on such an expression as rapidus 
cretae. 

Jahn argues as follows : " Sed neque Araxes neque Oxus illo tem- 
pore (anno 712) ad imperium Romanum pertinebant, atque Itali 
fugitivi exsulesque, quamvis ad extremos imperii fines perfugerent, 
tamen intra fines imperii remanserunt. Apparet autem poetam ex- 
treraas imperii partes nominare voluisse, unde Libyae (parti occi- 
dental!) opponit Scythiam (quam Orientis terram Romani in Ponto 
attingebant), atque Cretam insulam meridionalem Britanniae, insulae 
septentrionali. Fuit vero Creta versus meridiem extrema tellus, 
cum Aegyptus nondum in formam provinciae redacta esset. Bri- 
tannia autem, quamquam inter bella civilia a Romanis relicta esset, 
tamen a quo tempore Julius Caesar earn invaserat et expugnasse 
credebatur, pro imperii parte haberi coepta est." 

To this we only reply, that the poet does not say that the exiles 
were to remain within the bounds of the empire, for he very plainly 
intimates the contrary ; that we nowhere find Libya placed to the 
west and Scythia to the east of the Roman empire ; and that Ho- 
race, in odes written after this eclogue (i. 21, 15; 35, 30; iii. 5, 30), 
speaks of the Britons with the Persians as a people yet to be con- 
quered. 



330 



EXCURSUS II. 



EXCURSUS II. 

LATIN PARTICIPIALS. 
Tliestylis et rapido fessis messoribus aestu, etc. — Ec. ii. 10. 

In the preceding Excursus we ventured to assert that rapidus, in- 
stead of being an adjective and signifying swift, was properly a pre- 
sent participial of rapio, and therefore nearly identical with rapiens. 
The proofs will be seen in that Excursus : here we will endeavour 
to extend the principle, and show that this is the real nature of all 
the supposed adjectives in- idus, and that they are actives, and not 
passives, like the greater part of the words derived from them in 
modern languages. 

The first we will select is aridus, which is usually understood 
passively and equivalent to our arid, dry. Our proof will be the 
fact that the part, arens is frequently employed in the sense of 
aridus where we should have expected that word ; ex. gr.— 

Scatebrisque arentia temperat arva, Geor. i. 110; Pergama et 
arentem Xanthi cognomine riv urn, Aen. iii. 350; Arentem in 
silvam, Aen. xii. 522; Arentesque rosas, Geor. iv. 268 ; Arentes 
arenas, Hor. C. iii. 4, 31 ; Arenti ramo, Ov. M. vii. 276; Arenti 
avena, Tibull. ii. 1, 53. 

That areo is active would appear from its being joined with sitis, 
Ov. Her. iv. 174; Tibul. i. 4, 36. We therefore think that in 
arens and aridus the ancients had in view the effect of, or sensation 
caused by, the object to which they united them. 

In like manner we shall find that candidus (unlike alius) was, re- 
garded as producing an effect or sensation, as candens so frequently 
takes its place. Candentis vaccae, Aen. iv, 61 ; candentem tau- 
rum, ib. 236; candenti elephanto, ib. vi. 896. Candens lacteus 
humor, Lucr. i. 259; candenti marmore, ib. ii. 766. Candentes 
humeros, Hor. C. i. 2,31. Candentia Mia, Ov. Met. xii. 411. We 
believe however that we may assert that the idea of gleaming, emit- 
ting splendour, is always included in candidus. 

Calidus is, giving out heat ; for we meet with calentem favillam, 
Hor. C. ii. 6, 22. We may notice the Spanish agua caliente, hot 
water. 

Timidus is i. q. timens in the following places. Quidnamst quod sic 
video timidum et properantem Getam ? Ter. Adelph. iii. 2, 7. Nam- 
que modo me intro ut corripui timidus, Ter. Hec. iii. 3, 5. Codrus 
pro patria non timidus mori, Hor. C. iii. 19, 2. Quid referam 



LATIN PARTICIPIALS. 331 

timidae pro te pia vota puellae, Ov. Amor. ii. 6, 43. We also meet 
timens governing a gen. like timidus in Lucr. vi. 1237. 

Pattens often takes the place of pallidus, as Pallenti hedera, Ec. 
iii. 39- Pallentes violas, Ec. ii. 47. Pallenti olivae,\. 16. See 
also Ec. vi. 55. Geor. i. 478; iii. 357; iv. 124. Aen. iv. 26, 243. 
vi. 275, 480. In Aen. i. 354 we have ora modis attollens pallida 
miris; and in x. 822, ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris. 

Liquidus is i. q. liquens. Vina liquentia fundit, Aen. v. 776; 
Liquentes humorum guttas, Lucr. ii. 991. Liquentibus stagnis, 
Catull. xxxi. 2. Here we may see why liquidus is joined with aether, 
a'er, lumen, aestas, ignis, nubes, vox, etc. 

Humidus,i.q.humens. Humentem umbram, Aen. iii. 589. Hu- 
menti tellure, Ov. Met. i. 604. Humentes oculos, Id. xi. 464. 
Humente capillo, Id. ib. 691. 

Madidus, i. q. madens. Madidas a tempestate cohortes, Juv. vii. 
164. Lina madentia, Ov. Met. xiii. 931. 

Tumidus, i. q. tumens. Tumidoque inflatus carbasus austro, Aen. 
iii. 357- Crescentem tumidis infla sermonibus utrem, Hor. S. ii. 5, 
9S. Perque pedes trajectus lora tumentes, Aen. ii. 273. Fluctu sus- 
pensa tumenti, vii. 810. Thybris ea fluvium, quant longa est, node 
tumentem, Leniit. viii. 86. 

Lividus, i. q. livens. Liventis plumbi, Aen. vii. 687. Nigro 
liventia succo, Ov. Met. xiii. 817- 

Squalidus, i. q. squalens. Squalentes conchas, Geor. ii. 348. 
Tunicam squalentem auro, Aen. x. 314. 

Turbidus, i. q. turbans. Seu turbidus imber Proluit, Aen. xii. 
685. Incendi turbidus ardor, Lucr. vi. 673. Animal turbida sit 
vis, Id. ib. 693. Turbida rapacior procella, Catull. xxv. 4. Vacant 
enim rrddos, id est morbum, quicunque est motus in animo turbidus, 
Cic. Tusc. iii. 10. 

From the following list it will appear that the far greater part of 
these participials in -idus are derived from neuter verbs of the 2nd 
conj. So few indeed are those derived from verbs of the others, that 
we might be led to suspect that they are in reality derived from verbs 
of the 2nd conj. which had gone out of use : — 

From the 1st conj. come fumidus, gelidus, labidus, turbidus. 
3rd conj . fluidus, rabidus, rapidus, vividus. 4th conj . cupidus, sapidus. 

From the second come the following : acidus, albidus, algidus, 
avidus, calidus, callidus, candidus, fervidus, fiaccidus, flavidus, flori- 
dus,foetidus,fr acidus, herbidus, horridus, humidus, languidus, liquidus, 
lividus, lucidus, madidus, marcidus, morbidus, nitidus, olidus, pallidus, 
pavidus, putidus, putridus, rancidus, rigidus, roridus, rubidus, sor- 



332 EXCURSUS III. 

didus, splendidus, squaUdus, stolidus, stupidus, sucidus, labidus, tepi- 
dus, iimidus, torpidus, torridus, irepidus, tiimidus, turgidus, uvidus, 
validus, vanidus. 

To these are to be added the following, which have no verbs, and 
the list we believe will be complete : gravidus, hispidus, lepidus, lint' 
pidus, luridus, paedidus, ravidus, roscidus, solidus, vapidus, viscidus. 

Adjectives in vlus are, we think, in like manner active participles : 
such are bibulus, credulus, garrulus, gemulus, patulus, pendulus, gue- 
rillas, sedulus, stridulus, tremulus, vagulus. In some cases these are 
merely the same as the pras. part., in others they give intensity to 
its meaning. Thus pendulus is i. q. pendens. Pendulum collum, 
Hor. C. iii. 27, 58 ; pevdula palearea, Ov. Met. vii. 117 ; putator 
pendulus arbustis, Colum. x. 229. — Tremulus, i. q. tremens. Tre- 
mulus parens, Catull. lxi. 51 ; tremulis sub pondere ramis, Sil. 
Pun. vii. 671. In Aen. xii. 267 we have stridula cornus, and 
shortly after (v. 319) stridens sagitta. 

It is the same with adjectives in -bundus. Few, for example, could 
distinguish between moriens and moribundus. So also with those in 
-ax. In pugnacemque tenet, Ov. Met. iv. 358, we might substitute 
the part, without any change of the sense. 

There are also adjectives in -ius (as conscius, nescius, noxius, fluvius, 
mucins) and in -uus (assiduus, congruus, nocuus, caeduus) which are 
rather of the nature of participles ; to which we may add anhelus, 
festinus, coruscus, personus, sibilus, caducus, nubilus, etc. 



EXCURSUS III. 

LATIN MIDDLE VOICE, etc. 

Die quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum 
Nascantur flores. — £c. iii. 106. 

That very eminent critic Heindorf, in his note on fractus membra 
in Horace (S. i. 1, 5), says, "A structure borrowed from the Greeks, 
with whom the perf. pass, is so often the perf. med., with a reflected, 
or at least a transitive, meaning. We should therefore cease at length 
from supplying to this accusative in Latin a totally un-Latin se- 
cundum, in Greek a Kara, which is for the most part quite as un-Greek." 

This assertion is no doubt true to some extent, for there are 
many instances in both languages of a passive verb being thus em- 
ployed ; but still we think there are many cases where the /caret and 



LATIN MIDDLE VOICE, ETC. 333 

the secundum, or something of the kind, must be understood. We 
will confine our observations to the Latin. 

Though fractus membra, when speaking of a man, may be ren- 
dered having worn out his limbs, inscripti nomina, when used of flowers, 
can hardly be having inscribed the names. So also in the following 
instances we think the verbs can only be understood passively : — 

Turn vero ancipiti mentem formidine pressus Obstupui, Aen. ii. 
47. Tristi turbatus pectora bello, viii. 29. Magnoque animum 
labef actus amore, iv. 395. Quis innexa pedem malo pendebat 
ab alto, v. 511. Perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno, ii. 221. 
Maculisque trementes Interfusa genas, iv. 644. Percussa nova 
mentem formidine mater, Geor. iv. 357. Lacte mero mentes per- 
cussa novellas, Lucr. i. 262. Iberibns perusta funibus latus, 
Hor. Epod. 4, 3. We could easily extend this list were we to have 
recourse to Ovid and later poets. 

The Latin language, as is well known, has no middle voice, and 
its legitimate mode of making a reflected verb is to add se to a trans- 
itive. The poets however (and Virgil was the first to do so to any 
extent) gradually began to use passive as middle voices, particularly 
in verbs expressing to dress, to adorn, and such like. Nor was there 
anything very strained in this, for the middle is really a passive 
restricted to a particular agent. Thus rvivro^ai (pass.) is J am beaten 
(by any one), rvirrofiai (midd.) I am beaten (by myself). 

In Plautus (Ampb. i. 1, 155) we meet with cingitur, he is girding 
himself up. The same poet in his Pseudolus (v. 1, 38-40) uses vertor 
in the sense of turning oneself round. 

Lucretius uses accingor (ii. 1042), vertor (v. 1198), versor (ii. 112; 
vi. 199), volvor (vi. 978), sinnor (vi. 354), erumpor (vi. 582). 

In the early writings of Horace there is no instance of a middle 
voice ; and in his later ones the only decided one is moveor, to dance 
(Ep. ii. 2, 125 ; A. P. 232), to which we may perhaps add revertor 
(Ep. i. 15, 24) and induor (ib. 17, 20). 

The following list will show the claim of Virgil to the fame of 
introducing a middle voice into the Latin language. It will be ob- 
served that it was in the Aeneis he did it almost exclusively : — 

Feror (Ec. viii. 60. Aen. ii. 511 ; iv. 545 ; vii. 673), volvor (Geor. 
iii.438. Aen. ix. 414 ; xi. 889), cingor (Geor. iii. 46. Aen. ii. 511, 
520 ; iv. 493 ; vi. 188), exerceor (Geor. iv. 157; Aen. vii. 163), vertor 
(i. 158 ; vii. 784), induor (vii. 640), reddor (vi. 545), tollor (vii. 408), 
agor (xii. 336), tegor (ii. 227), aperior (iii. 275), condor (ii. 401; vii. 
802), stemor (ii. 722 ; iii. 509), velor (iii. 405, 545 ; v. 134), impleor 
(i. 215), lustror (iii. 279), armor, moveor (vii. 429) , fundor (ii. 383). 



334* EXCURSUS IV. 

Virgil also uses the following passives as deponents : to which 
observation we may add, that he and other poets also use the past 
part, of deponents at times in a passive sense, as in Ec. ix. 53. 

Scindor (Aen. iv. 590 ; ix. 478), percutior (iv. 589 ; vii. 503 ; xi. 
877), induor (ii. 275),fundor (iv. 509 ; x. 838), circumdor (ii. 219 ; 
iv. 137 ; xii. 416), lanior (xii. 606),Jigor (vi. 156), demittor (i. 56l), 
mutor (i. 658), premor (iv. 659), jungor (x. 157), exseror (x. 649), 
subnitor (iv. 217), saturor (v. 608), solvor (iii. 65 ; xi. 35). 

There is another class of expressions which will hardly come 
under any of these heads ; that, namely, in which the part. pass, 
and the ace. case take the place of the abl. absolute. It is to this 
class that the verse at the head of this article seems properly to be- 
long. Such also are the following : picti scuta Labici, i. e. L.pictis 
souths, Aen. vii. 796; Pictus acu chlamydem, ix. 582; Delphinum 
caudas utero commissa luporum, iii. 428. 

The Laevo suspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto of Horace (S. i. 6, 
74 ; Ep. i. 1, 56), which is plainly an imitation of the Greek (as in 
6 ttjv mjpav (^rjpTrjfxevos, Luc. Vit. Auc. 7), comes under the head of 
passives used as deponents. 



EXCURSUS IV. 

THE SIBYL AND THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE. 

Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas. — Ec. iv. 4. 

The first question which arises here is what is the Cumaeum carmen ? 
Probus (on this place) says it is the poem of Hesiod, whose father 
came to Ascra from Cyme in Aeolis, and who, in his account of the 
successive Ages, appears to intimate that after the Iron Age, the last 
and worst, there would be a return to a better state of things. This 
opinion, which was adopted by Fabricius and Graevius, has also 
been embraced by Goettling (on Hes. "Epy. 109), but it does not 
seem to be tenable ; for, setting aside the circumstance that Hesiod 
is nowhere called a Cumaean, Virgil could hardly say of the age, in 
which Hesiod said that he himself was living, jam venit. The other 
hypothesis is that of Servius, according to which the Cumaeum car- 
men is the prophetic verses of the Cumaean Sibyl. This is the hy- 
pothesis generally adopted, and it does not seem possible to find 



THE SIBYL AND THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE. 335 

any better, though it is not free from difficulty. In the first place 
we have only the testimony of Servius himself (for he does not quote 
any authority) that there were such Sibylline verses : then it may 
be asked in what collection were they ? for, according to Varro (ap. 
Serv. Aen. vi. 36), the original oracles preserved at Rome were those 
of the Erythraean Sibyl (it is the Cumaean in Lactantius) ; and Nie- 
buhr (i. 496) asserts that these were not prophetic, that they only 
gave directions what was to be done in particular cases. Were they 
then in the new collection made in the time of Sulla ? or in those nu- 
merous ones that were in common circulation after that time ? Pos- 
sibly, as some ill-judging Cbristians did afterwards (see p. 60), so 
the Jews or their proselytes might have forged Sibylline verses 
prophetic of the coming of the Messiah and of the blessings of his 
reign. Still it is difficult to believe that these verses could have 
obtained sufficient credit to be used in the public and solemn manner 
in which they are employed by Virgil. 

The question of who or what the Sibyls were seems involved in 
impenetrable obscurity. The first mention of the Sibyl occurs in 
the fragments of the philosopher Heraclitus, who says (Frag. p. 332), 
2t/3tAAa iv iroXXols Kal tovto eCppdcrOrj 

'E£ 'idSos X^PV 9 v£ eiv o"o(f)6v 'iraAi'Saio-f, 

evidently meaning Pythagoras. Plato also (Phaedr. p. 244) men- 
tions the Sibyl : bis words are, Kai eav Se \eyap.ev ^ifivKkav re <a\ 
aKXovs, ocroi, [xavTiKj] ^pco/xei'ot ivdeqt, iroWa 8r) 7roWols irpoXiyovres 
els to fieWov a>pda>crav, jj.rjKvvoifJi.ev civ 8rp\a Travri Xeyovres. We may 
observe that Plato, like Heraclitus, uses the name without an ar- 
ticle, which seems to prove that Sibylla, like Musaeus, Bacis, and 
other similar names, was the proper name of a real or supposed 
individual. Little stress, we think, can be laid on the ordinary de- 
rivation from crios (debs Dor.) and j3ov\r). 

Varro (ap. Lact. i. 6) and the Scholiast on Plato enumerate ten 
Sibyls : the Persian, Libyan, Delphic, Cumaean or Cimmerian (in 
Italy), Erythraean, Samian, Cuman (in Aeolis), Hellespontic, Phry- 
gian and Tiburtian. Of these one-half, we may observe, belong to 
the colonies of Asia Minor, and it is probable that this was the sup- 
posed abode of the one original Sibyl. The Persian and Libyan (if 
there was such a one, for the reference of Varro to the Lamia of 
Euripides seems dubious) are later fictions ; and the Albunea of 
Tibur, though perhaps similar to the Sibyl, was an independent 
personage. The resemblance to the Pythia may have given origin 
to a Delphic Sibyl; and if it was to the Cuman or Erythraean 



336 EXCURSUS V. 

Sibyl that the verses preserved at Rome were ascribed, the simi- 
larity of name may have led to the creation of a Cumaean Sibyl. 
This must however have taken place before the sixth century of 
Rome; forNaevius, according to Varro (utsup.), in his poem on the 
Punic War, made Aeneas consult her ; in which, as is well known, 
he was imitated by Virgil. 



EXCURSUS V. 

PECULIARITIES OF VIRGIL'S STYLE. 
Eliadum palmas Epiros equarum ? — Geor. i. 59. 

In the Life of Virgil we have observed that in the Georgics he 
adopted some peculiarities of style. We do not mean to say that 
these were entire novelties ; but though they may be found in pre- 
ceding Greek or Latin poets, they are so much more numerous in 
the Georgics, that they give a peculiar character to that poem. 

The first which we will notice is that of which the examples are 
most numerous, namely, — the use of que for ve, atque for aut, etc., i. e. 
the copulative for the disjunctive. This practice, which is unknown to 
modern languages, prevailed more or less in the Hebrew, the Greek, 
and the Latin. 

In the first, though Gesenius asserts the contrary, the copulative, 
ve, is frequently disjunctive, at least must be so rendered in transla- 
tion ; for though ingenuity may succeed in some cases in making it 
out to be still copulative, in others such efforts are fruitless. Such 
for example is, Either (ve) he is talking, or (ve) he is pursuing, or (ve) 
he is in a journey, 1 Kings, xviii. 27. 

In Homer we have observed the two following instances : — 

tJtol 6 /xee 7rpa>Trjo-i Kal vo-Tarlrjo-c (3o€aaLv 
alev SfMoarixdei, 6 8e r iv pecrarjo-iv opovaas 
pow e'Set.— II. xv. 634. 

Trptv y or av evheKarn re dvcobeadTr] re yevnrai. — Od. ii. 374. 

The most usual way in which the copulative thus became dis- 
junctive was when it was mixed up, as we may term it, with disjunc- 
tives. Examples of this may be seen in Apoll. Rh. iii. 1240-4. 
Catull. xi. 5-8. Hor. C. iii. 1, 42-44 ; 4, 53-56. Epod. 16, 3-8. 

In the following verses of Lucretius the copulative may be re- 
garded as disjunctive: Et veluti manns atque oculus, naresve seor- 
sum, Secreta ab nobis, nequeunt sentire neque esse, iii. 550. Aut 



PECULIARITIES OF VIRGIL'S STYLE. 337 

subiti perimunt imbres gelidaeque pruinae, Flabraque ventorum vio- 
lent*) turbine vexant, v. 217. So also in Catullus : Quare quicquid 
habes boni malique Die nobis, vi. 15. See also Hor. C. iii. 1, 20, 
23, 30. 

Bentley, though, as it would appear, he did not recognise this 
principle in the Latin language, saw so clearly that in some cases 
que was disjunctive, that he would without hesitation substitute ve 
for it : see his notes on Hor. Carm. iii. 1, 43 ; Epod. 16, 6 ; Lucan, 
i. 252; ii. 199. 

The following are the places in which, in our opinion, Virgil uses 
the copulative disjunctively : Buc. i. 66. Geor. i. 75, 120, 173, 371, 
442, 485; ii. 84, 87, 102, 121, 137, 139, 242, 276, 312, 351, 421, 
436, 450, 464, 496, 498, 502, 511 ; iii. 121, 122, 141, 142, 175, 213, 
253, 254, 278, 399, 405, 407, 466 ; iv. 10, 18, 19, 24, 124, 210, 244, 
268, 270, 407, 408. Aen. ii. 37 ; v. 595 ; vii. 675 ; viii. 88 ; x. 320. 
In some of these places the copulative may be rendered by and, but 
we believe that in all of them or will best give the sense of the poet. 
We may observe that this use of the copulative is almost peculiar to 
the Georgics. 

In the Georgics also the copulative is sometimes omitted before 
the last member of the sentence, as in i. 102 ; ii. 6. We also find 
an instance in Ec. iv. 45. 

But the most remarkable feature perhaps of Virgil's poetry is his 
frequent use of the figure called Hypallage, by which words are put 
in a construction contrary to their natural sense : as in Si tantum 
notas odor attidit auras, Geor. iii. 251 ; Dare classibus Austros, Aen. 
iii. 61. How any one can, like Heyne, admire such slights of lan- 
guage is, we confess, a matter of wonder to us. 

Lucretius and Horace both use this figure occasionally, but with 
much more moderation than Virgil, merely joining an adjective with 
a substantive, to which in strictness it does not belong. Thus the 
former has impia rationis elementa, i. 82 ; anhela sitis de corpore 
nostro abluitur, iv. 876 ; e salso momine ponti, vi. 474 ; nigra virum 
percocto secla colore, vi. 1108. The latter has Regina dementes ruinas 
parabat. C. i. 37, 7 ; Nee purpurarum sidere clarior Delenit usus, iii. 
1, 42 ; iratos regum apices, 21, 19 ; to which we may perhaps add 
Premant Calena falce vitem, i. 31, 9. 

The hypallage occurs in the following places in Virgil : Ec. x. 55. 
Geor. i. 59, 211, 258, 266, 296, 318, 360; ii. 101, 251, 260, 497 ; 
iii. 490 ; iv. 119, 238, 335, 415. Aen. i. 361 ; ii. 387, 508 ; iii. 61, 
362 ; iv. 385, 506 ; v. 458, 480, 589 ; viii. 73, 542, 654 ; ix. 455 ; 
x. 660; xi. 18, 212; xii. 187, 219, 621, 739, 859. 

Q 



338 EXCURSUS VI. 

Virgil also made frequent use of the figure named Catachresis. 
In the Georgics he continually employs arena instead of terra, and 
jiuvius, fons, ros and imber for aqua. 



EXCURSUS VI. 

CORVUS AND CORN1X. 

E pastu deeedens agmine magno 

Corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis. — Geor. i. 381. 

Ornithologists will, we believe, allow that we are right in render- 
ing corvus, here and in v. 410, by rook, and comix (v. 308) by raven 
or crow. Yet, strange as it may seem, it is only ourselves and 
Hoblyn that thus employ these terms. Martyn, Voss, and all the 
other commentators and translators of the Georgics, make corvus 
raven and comix crow. In all dictionaries it is the same ; so also 
in all the languages derived from the Latin. Corvo It., cuervo Sp., 
corbeau Fr., is raven ; cornacchia It., corneja Sp., corneille Fr., is 
rook or crow. We trust that we shall be able to prove that this is 
all incorrect. 

The Latin corvus is the Greek nopag, our crow, including under 
that name the rook (Cfrugilegush.), the carrion-crow (C. coro- 
na L.), the Royston crow (C. comix L.), and, as we shall have some 
reason to suppose, the jackdaw (C monedula L.). The Latin cor- 
nix is the Greek Kopavt], which, if it is not, as perhaps is the case, 
to be restricted to the raven (C corax L.), at least includes him; 
otherwise he will be without a name in the Greek and Latin 
languages. 

Corvus, the rook, occurs in these places in Virgil, and in the cor- 
responding places in Aratus ; for it is only the rooks that fly in 
troops and have their nests all in the same place in the trees. The 
daws no doubt do the former, but not the latter. Virgil, however, 
may have included in his corvi both the Kopanes and the koXoioi of 
Aratus. When Persius (S. iii. 61) says 

An passim sequeris corvo s testaque lutoque 
Securus quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivis ? 

it is plain to every one that it must be the rooks he means, as it is 
these birds that children thus pursue. 

In all other places of the classics corvus is, Ave believe, the carrion- 



CORVUS AND CORNLX. 339 

crow. Thus when Horace (Ep. i, 16, 46) says, Nonpasces in cruce 
corvos, it can be only this crow he means, for the rook is not car- 
nivorous. It is also probably this crow of which he speaks else- 
where (C. hi. 27, 11. S. i. 8, 38 ; ii. 5, 56). In the Bat veniam 
corvis, vexat censura columbas of Juvenal (ii. 63) it is probably the 
crows that are meant ; though it may be the rooks, and the sense of 
the passage be : ' the rooks are let to feed on the corn, while the 
pigeons are driven away.' In the 

Atque idea postquam ad Cimbros stragemque volabant 
Qui nunquam attigerant majora cadavera corvi 

of the same poet (viii. 252) they are beyond doubt the carrion-crows. 
In all the places in Aristotle and iElian where the n6pa% is mentioned 
it seems to be this crow. To this also belong the ordinary expres- 
sions es Kopanas, array , j3aXX' is Kopanas, meaning, to leave the body 
unburied. 

Pliny (x. 43) tells a story of a corvus thus : — " Tiberio Principe 
ex fetu supra Castorum aedem genito pullus (sc. corvinus) in oppo- 
sitam sutrinam devolavit, etiam religione commendatus ofhcinae 
domino. Is mature sermoni assuefactus, omnibus matutinis evo- 
lans in Rostra, forum versus, Tiberium, dein Germanicum et Drusum 
Caesares nominatim, mox transeuntem populum Rom. salutabat, 
postea ad tabernam remeans, plurium annorum assiduo officio mi- 
nis." Now this wonderful corvus, we have no doubt, was a mone- 
dula, or jackdaw, $pv of the crow-kind there are only the claw, the 
raven, and the magpie, that can be taught to speak, and these two 
last never build in towns or on houses. 

We come now to the comix or Kopavrj, and we confess that we 
cannot show as satisfactorily that it is, as that the corvus is not, the 
raven. In fact nearly all the places in which it is mentioned will 
apply as well to the carrion-crow. We can, however, offer some 
proofs. Thus Aristotle constantly distinguishes between the Kopoa- 
vq and the Kopa^, though he. makes them both carnivorous. Of the 
former he says, napcpayov yap io-riv (H. A. viii. 3 : see on Geor. i. 
389) ; and of the latter he tells us (ix. 31) that when the Medes were 
slain in Pharsalus, the Kopaices flocked thither in such numbers that 
Attica and the Peloponnese were quite deserted by them. If then the 
Kopdovq is not the Royston crow, it must be the raven. What iElian 
tells (De N. A. iii. 9) of the conjugal fidelity of the Kop&vai, also ap- 
plies best to the ravens. Pliny further tells us that the comix breaks 
the shells of walnuts by letting them fall from a height on stones or 
tiles ; but as modern naturalists tell the same thing of the carrion- 

Q2 



340 EXCURSUS VII-VIII. 

crow in the matter of shell-fish, we can make no use of this case. 
We therefore cannot venture to assert that the comix is the raven 
and the raven alone. 



EXCURSUS VII. 

ABSTRACT FOR CONCRETE. 

Praemiaque ingeniis pagos et compita circum 
Thesidae posuere. — Geor. ii. 382. 

This we believe to be an instance of a practice in which the Latin 
language indulged more than any other, — that of using abstract for 
concrete nouns, or acts for agents. The Greek, it is true, did the 
same, but only, we believe, in the higher poetry ; while the Latin 
used these terms in the prose of history and the language of common 
life. The Euphuism of England, and the Prccieux of France, in the 
17th century, seem to have been derived from this principle of the 
Latin language. Drakenborch (on Liv. iii. 15, and on Sil. viii. 33 ; 
xv. 74S ; xvi. 504) has given some instances of this practice, as also 
has Zumpt (§ 675), and the following list may not prove unaccept- 
able to scholars : — 

Servitium and opera, for servus and operarius, are of common occur- 
rence. So also is auxilia. Plautus and Terence use scelus and salus 
frequently, and the latter career (Ph. ii. 3, 26). Sallust uses flagitia 
and facinora (Cat. 14) ; Livy, mors (ii. 7 ; Cf. Cic. Mil. 32); Taci- 
tus, crimina (Ann. i. 55), amicitia (ii. 77) ; Seneca, custodia (Ep. s. 6) ; 
Ovid, helium (Met. xii. 25 ; Cf. Flor. ii. 2, 17 ; Plin. Pan. 12), dam- 
num, (ib. 16), furtum (Fast. iii. 846), cura (Her. i. 104); Juvenal, 
vitia (ii. 34), potestas (ix. 100; x. 100), officia(x. 45), spectacula (viii. 
205), honor (i. 1 10, 1 17) ; Catullus, stupor (xvii. 21); Propertius, amor 
(ii. 19, 57), conjugium (iii. 11, 20) ; Horace, artes (Ep. ii. 1, 13), in- 
genium {ib. 2, 81), culpas (C. iii. 11, 29). 



EXCURSUS VIII. 

Quod surgente die, etc. — Geor. iii. 400. 

Fea has, we think, in a very simple and elegant manner removed 
the difficulty from this passage, by merely a change of punctuation. 
He reads it thus : — 



ON GEOR. III. 400. 341 

" Quod surgente die mulsere, horisque diurnis 
Nocte premunt ; quod jam tenebris et sole cadente 
Sub lucem : exportans calathis adit oppida pastor ; 
Aut parco sale contingunt hiemique reponunt." 

He understands premunt with sub lucem, thus giving an equal space 
of time to the morning and to the evening milking before coagula- 
tion. The shepherd then either puts into baskets the new cheese, 
and carries it to the towns for sale, or it gets an additional quantity 
of salt and is laid up for the winter. This, he says, is what the 
shepherds in the neighbourhood of Rome actually do at the present 
day. He adds, that of this new-made cheese there are two kinds ; 
the one properly called cheese {formaggio), the other ricotta, as being 
made from what remains in the pan (caldaja) after the formaggio 
has been made, and is procured by reheating, whence comes its 
name. Fea further thinks that by pressi copia lactis (Ec. i. 81), is 
meant a ricotta rather than cheese, as it is what the shepherds of 
the present day would be likely to give on such an occasion. Or, 
he says, it may mean the various products of milk, as cheese, ri- 
cotta, giuncata (junkets or curds), for the Italians at the present day 
say copia di latti, uso di latti, latticing, for milk and its products. — 
See Terms of Husbandry, v. Caseus. 

Instead of exportans, in v. 402, Fea would read et portans ; but 
though he shows that et and ex are sometimes confounded in the 
MSS., we see no necessity for the alteration. 

It is somewhat strange that Fea seems not to have been aware 
that the reading of all the MSS. is export ant, and that exportans 
is the emendation of Scaliger. This emendation has, however, 
been adopted by every editor but Jahn and Forbiger ; and if the 
above explanation of the passage is correct, there can be no doubt 
of its being the word that Virgil wrote. Wagner shows very 
satisfactorily how exportant might have arisen from the preceding 
mulsere and premunt and the following contingunt. 

In conclusion, it is to be observed that, though Fea alone has 
offered proof of this interpretation, .it was seen long ago by Wadel 
(see Burmarm in loc.) that mulsere and premunt might be understood 
with sub lucem. We ourselves have no doubt whatever of this being 
the true interpretation of the passage. 



342 EXCURSUS IX. 

EXCURSUS IX. 

LATIN CONTRACTIONS. 

Saevit agris asperque siti atque exterritus aestn. — Geor. iii. 435. 

In our Tales and Popular Fictions, when tracing the origin of the 
Italian word Fata, a fairy, we said that it was mia donna fata, 
i. e.fatata ; fato being the contraction offatato, the part, offatare ; 
for the Italian language frequently thus contracts the past part, of 
verbs in -are: as, adorno, from adomato; guasto, from guastato ; col- 
mo, from colmato, etc. 

We there (p. 341) expressed an opinion that the Italian might 
have derived this singular practice of eliding an accented syllable 
from its Latin mother, and we gave a list of Latin words which pre- 
sented this appearance. We afterwards met with the following 
passage in Priscian (vi. 15, 79). 

" Nee minim in nominibus hoc fieri cum etiam ipsa participia 
inveniuntur quando per syncopam prolata, ut potus pro potatus, 
cretus pro creatus, dictus pro dictatus, saucius pro sauciatus, truncus 
pro truncatus, lassus pro lassatus." Elsewhere he says, " a lacera- 
tus, lacerus vel lacer." 

On further reflection it appeared to us that this syncope was not 
confined to particips. of the 1 st conj.,butwas a general principle of the 
language ; and that the vowels e, i, o were elided in the same manner 
as a, though not to the same extent. We will here give examples 
of the elision of these vowels when accented. 

E. — VirguUtum makes virgultum; salicetum, salictum ; filicetum, 
Jillctum; fruticetum,frutectum; caricetum (obs.), carectum. To these 
we may perhaps venture to add arbastum, from arboretum (see Gell. 
xvii. 2), r being changed into s for the sake of euphony. Priscian 
(ix. 10) says : "Adultus pro adoletus prolatum est." 

I. — Audii, petit, etc., from audivi, petivi, etc. ; traxe, dixe, etc., 
from traxisse, dixisse, etc. ; amasse, etc., from amavisse, etc. To 
these may be added the case where the syncope is not of the ac- 
cented, but its effect is to throw the accent back from that syllable. 
This, as Forbiger has observed (on Lucr. i. 71), takes place in the 
contraction of the third pers. sing, of the perf. of the first conj., as 
in irritat for irritavit, Lucr. i. 71 ; peritat, iii. 710; conturbat, v. 
443 ; disturbat, vi. 587 : and in Virgil, vocat, Ec. v. 23 ; creat, Geor. 
i. 279- This principle appears to us to be more simple than that of 
supposing a pras. used for a perf. 

In the following places sanctus is evidently the same as sancitus, 



LATIN CONTRACTIONS. 343 

and therefore may justly be regarded as a contraction of it. Le- 
gem tulit diligentius sanctam, Liv. x. 9. In his rebus multa videmus 
ita sancta esse legibus, Cic. Verr. ii. 1, 42. Quaeque ita composita 
sanctaque essent, Cic. Legg. ii. 5. Lege sanctum est, Cic. ib. 24. 
Hence we may infer that vinctus and amictus are i. q. vincitus and 
amicitus. We find lentus used by Virgil as a part. (Ec. i. 4 ; Aen. 
xi. 829) ; it therefore is probably lenitus contracted. So also aper- 
ius, opertus, expertus, were originally aperitus, etc. Quaestor is 
evidently quaesitor. Ficulnus and hornus must have been at first 
ficulinus and horinus, and possibly infemus, supernus, and alternus, 
were infer inus, etc. 

O. — Under this letter we have divfim, virum, etc., for divorum, 
virorum, etc. See Priscian, vii. 6. 

We will commence our view of those which we regard as con- 
tracted participles of verbs in -are, by giving a few instances of the 
use of them with undoubted participles. 

"Atque hie Priamiden laniatum corpore toto 
Deiphobum videt, et lacerum crudeliter ora, 
Ora manusque ambas, populataque tempora raptis 
Auribus, et truncas inhonesto vulnere nares." — Aen. vi. 494. 

" exsectum jam matre perempta 

Et tibi, Phoebe, sacrum," — Ib. x. 315. 
" Orba pedum partim, manuum viduata vicissim." — Lucr.v. 838. 
" Exanimis pueris super exanimata parentum 

Corpora."— Id. vi. 1255. (Cf. v. 12/2.) 
" Statque latus praefixa veru, stat saucia pectus." — Tibull. 1.7,55- 
"Vulnere tardus equi, fessusqae senilibus annis." — 

Ov. Met. xiii. 65. 
" Congressum, profugum, captum, vox nuntiat una." — 

Claud. Bell. Gild. 12. 
" Funeraque orba rogis, neglectaque membra relinquunt. 
Tunc inhonora cohors laceris insignibus aegris 
Secernunt acies." — Stat. Th. x. 7- 
" Namque orbam nato simul etprivatam viro." — Phaedr. iii. 10,45. 
" Ut es homo f actus ad persuadendum concinnus, perfectus, poli- 

tus e schola." — Cic. Pis. 25. 
" Scriba damnatus, ordo totus alienus." — Id. Mur. 20. 
We will now examine some words, and endeavour to show that 
they are real participles, and conclude with a list of the words of 
this kind which we have met with. 



344- EXCURSUS IX. 

Orbus. — Puerique parentibus orbi, Aen. xi. 216. Forumque Li- 
tibus orbum, Hor. C. iv. 2, 43. 

Viduus. — Viduus pharetra Risit Apollo, Hor. C. i. 10, 11, 
(Porphyr. in he). 

Maritus. — Pollueritque novo sacra marita toro, Prop. iii. 19, 16. 
Haecne marita fides, Id. iv. 3, 11. 

Partus. — Part a mecesunt Veneri munera, Ec. iii. 68. Regia conjux 
parta tibi, Aen. ii. 783. Nam mihiparta quies, vii. 598. Amicitias 
comparare, quibus partis confirmatur animus, Cic. Fin. i. 20. 

Cruentus. — Arma cruenta cerebro, Aen. ix. 753. Cf. tela cruentat, 
x. 731. Virgil frequently thus uses cruentus. Cruentus sanguine 
fraterno, Hor. S. ii. 5, 15. 

Aptus. — Quibus e sumus uniter apti, Lucr. iii. 851. Crescebant 
uteri terrae radicibus apti, Id. v. S06. Ipsis e torquibus aptos Jungs 
pares, Geor. iii. 168. Pilaque feminea turpiter apta mam, Prop. iv. 
6, 22 ; (" apta hie velit aptata ; ut saepe alias apud optimos scrip- 
tores." Broukhuis, in he). We also think that this is the simplest 
mode of understanding the caelum stellis fulgentibus aptum, which 
Virgil has adopted from Ennius. 

Decorus. — Ductores auro volitant ostroque decor i, Aen. xii. 126. 
Merita decorus fronde, Hor. C. iv. 2, 35. 

Vastus. — Haecego vast a dabo, Aen. ix. 323. Vastam urbemfuga 
et caedibus, Sail. Hist. i. 15. Vast a Italia rapinis, fuga, caedibus, 
Id. ib.inc. 139. 

Concinnus. — Concinnus amicis Postulat ut videatur, Hor. S. i. 3, 
50. At sermo lingua concinnus utraque Suavior, Id. ib. 10, 23 ; Cf. 
Ep. i. 17, 29 ; IS, 6. Reditus ad rem aptus et concinnus, Cic. Or. 
iii. 53. 

Uncus. — Uncae manus, Aen. iii. 217. Et supera calamos unco 
percurrere labro, Lucr. v. 1406. 

Mutilus. — Sic mutilus minitaris, Hor. S. i. 5, 60. Litteras truncas 
atque mutilas reddebat, Gell. xvii. 9. 

Honestus. — Honestus Fascibu-s et sellis, Hor. S. i. 6, 96. Neque 
eo tutiaut magis honesti sunt, Sail. Jug. 3. Qui eum (Jwnorem) sen- 
tentiis, qui suffragiis adeptus est, is mihi et honestus et honoratus 
videtur, Cic. Brut. 81. 

Profugus. — Fato profugus, Aen. i. 2. Quos Mi bello profugos 
egere superbo, viii. 118. Quamque potes profugo, nam potes, offer 
opem, Ov. Ex P. ii. 9, 6 . Alloquio profugi credis inesse metum? Id. 
ib. iii. 6, 40. Qui saepe regni ejus potitus dein profugus, Tac. Ann. 
xiii. 6. 

Funestus. — Mortuum ejusfilium esse, funestaque familia dedicare 



LATIN CONTRACTIONS. 345 

eum templum non posse, Liv. ii. 8. Jam funesta domus est nee an- 
nantiatum malum, Sen. de Vit. Beat. 28. Funestus reddidit agros, 
Lucr. vi. 1136. 

Opacus. — Cujus umbra opaca sedeserat, Liv. iii. 25. Draken. inloc. 

Siccus. — Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis, Ov. Met. xv. 
268. Post haec carbasiis humorem tollere velis Atque in marmorea 
ponere sicca (ossa) domo, Tibull. iii. 2, 21. Ut ferrum Marte cru- 
entum Siccum pace f eras, Claud. Pr. Cons. Stil. ii. 15. 

Alienus. — Jam primum ilium alieno animo a nobis esse,Ter. Adelph. 
iii. 2. 40. Alienus est ab nostra familia, Id. ib. 28. Sed, ut fit, post- 
quam hunc alienum ab sese videt, Id. Hec. 1, 2,83. Nulla sit ut 
placeas alienae cura puellae, Ov. Rem. Am. 681. Burmann in loc. 

Nudus. — Nudum remigio latus, Hor. C. i. 14, 4. Nudus agris, 
nudus nummis, insane, paternis, Id. S. ii. 3, 184. Cf. Ep. i. 3, 20. 

Liber, i. e. liberus. — Colonos Romanos expulit liberamque earn 
urbem Volscis tradidit, Liv. ii. 39. Turn libera fatis, Aen. x. 154. 

Luxus. — Luxum si quod est hac cautione sanum fiet, Cat. 160. 
Luxo pede, Sail. H. inc. 163. 

Satur, i.e. saturus. — Quam satur ac plenus possis discedere re- 
rum, Lucr. iii. 973. Qui non editis saturi fite fabulis, Plaut. Poen. 
Prol. 8. Libet et Tyrio saturas ostro Rumpere vestes, Sen. Thyest. 
955. 

We do not mean to assert that all these words are always contracted 
participles, for there may be merely a coincidence of form. Thus 
from alienus may come a verb alienor, whose contr. part, is alienus. 
The same may be the case with siccus, uncus, etc. We will add the 
following, which may also be contracted terms, and many of which 
we have no doubt are such : — 

Sectus, frictus, nectus, cremus, mulctus, jutus, lautas, lotus, laxus, 
lassus, assns, quassus, pulsus, probus, obstipus, delirus, soporus, odo- 
rus, cavus, curvus, sacer, macer, asper, aegrotus, spissus, mutuus, 
vacuus, salvus, sanus, reciprocus, socius, privus, putus, opinus, mani- 
festus, infestus, crispus, perjurus, obscurus, tardus, properus, molestus, 
humectus, densus, firmus, etc. 

Lucrum is probably lucratum, donum donatum, segmen secamen, 
sector secator, lictor ligator, libertus liberatus ; carptim, tractim, exul- 
tim, are carpatim, etc. 

Singultim, in Horace (S. i. 6, 56), is evidently singulation, and is 
rightly explained by the scholiasts : cum intervallo, interruptis 
verbis. 

In the following places virago appears to be i. q. virgo. Corpore 
Tartarino prognata pallida virago (Minerva), Ennius, i. 24. Ego 

Q 5 



346 EXCURSUS X. 

emero matri tuae ancillam riraginem aliquam, Plaut. Merc. ii. 3, 
77. Juturna virago, Aen. xii. 468 (Ueynein loc). Ades en comiti 
diva virago (Diana), Sen. Hip. 54. 

Riguus and irriguus are everywhere, one place excepted, passive, 
and so may be the past part, of an obsolete verb riguo, i. q. rigo. 
In that one place (Geor. ii. 485) there may possibly be a hypallage, 
or the poet may have written riguis. 



EXCURSUS X. 

Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi, etc. — Geor. iv. 287- 

There is no passage in Virgil which has given critics more trouble 
than this, on account of vv. 291-293, which, though they occur in 
all the MSS., are arranged in three different manners. The reading 
of most MSS. is 

" Et viridem Aegyptum nigra fecundat arena 
Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora 
Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis." 

The Med. and five others have these verses in this order : Et di- 
versa ruens — Et viridem Aegyptum — Usque coloratis. 

The Rom. and one other read, Et diversa ruens — Usque coloratis 
— Et viridem Aegyptum. This, which gives the best sense, is the 
reading followed by Voss, Jahn, and Forbiger. 

Let us now examine the whole passage. Virgil, having {vv. 287- 
289) given an accurate description of the country about the Canobic 
branch of the Nile, on the west side of Egypt, adds (v. 290) Quaque 
pharetratae vicinia Persidis urguet, where, from the repetition of the 
qua from v. 287, one might be led to expect the mention of another 
country in which the same practice was to be found. Then follow 
the three perplexing verses, in which the poet seems to speak of the 
Nile again, and to restrict the whole description to Egypt. The 
critics who maintain the genuineness of these lines say, that by 
Persis is meant all that part of Asia which was beyond the bounds 
of the Roman empire to the east or to the south. In this, says 
Jahn (referring to Geor. ii. 120 seq. and 171), Arabia was certainly 
included ; and, as the Roman Syria was not at that time contermi- 
nous to Egypt, the poet could hardly say that eastern Egypt was 
conterminous to any other country than Persis. 

This, to our apprehension, is very inconclusive reasoning. There 
is not the shadow of a proof that the Romans ever gave such exten- 



ON GEOR. IV. 287. 347 

sion to the term Persis ; for surely the places of our poet referred to 
are no proof of it. Further, when it is said that the river flows down 
coloratis ab Indis, we are required to believe on the mere word of 
the critics that these Indians are the Aethiopians ; for most assuredly 
Geor. ii. 116, which is the only place referred to, does not prove it. 
Jacob Bryant was of opinion that it was the Ganges that the poet 
meant, as he elsewhere (Aen. ix. 30) notices the seven mouths of 
that river ; but India was not sufficiently known to the Romans at 
that time perhaps to allow of this interpretation, though we know 
of no river but it or the Indus that by Virgil or any one else could 
be said to flow from the country of the Indians. 

Heyne was of opinion that vv, 291, 292 were written by Virgil 
himself in the margin of his copy, when he had not made up his 
mind as to which he would insert in the text ; or one or other of 
them might have been put there from some good poet by a gram- 
marian. Wagner extends this to vv. 291-293, and thinks they 
might have been written in the margin by Virgil himself, or copied 
there by some critic from some lost poem of Virgil's. He holds that 
it is Syria that is meant in v. 290 ; Persis being the Parthian empire, 
which was divided from the Roman by the Euphrates. To this in- 
terpretation, which alone makes sense of the passage, we make no 
objection. We will only observe, that the want of an object or go- 
verned case to the verb urguet might lead us to doubt of the genuine- 
ness of v. 290 also ; and to suspect that the whole four lines indicate 
an attempt on the part of the poet, or of some one else, to enlarge or 
to add to the beautiful and picturesque description contained in 
vv. 287-289. For a hypothesis on this subject see Life of Virgil. 



348 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

Ablaqueatio, yvpacris {v. ablaqueo, yvp6a>). An operation per- 
formed on the vines and olives. It consisted in digging round the tree 
and exposing all its roots, of which those that grew in the depth of a 
foot and a half from the surface were to be cut away, in order that 
the remainder might acquire greater vigour. This was to be done 
in the beginning of October, and the hole thus made was to be left 
open till some time in December, according to the weather, when it 
was to be filled up, dung being sometimes put about the roots. 
Colum. iv. 8. 

Amurca, dpopyq, morchia It. A fluid contained in the olive along 
with the oil, which must be carefully separated from it. The amurca 
is a watery fluid of a dark colour and of greater specific gravity than 
the oil. The uses made of it were, to mix with the clay for forming 
the area, and with the plaister for the walls and floors of granaries, 
as it was held to banish insects and vermin, for which reason chests 
containing clothes were rubbed with it. It served also to oil leather 
and iron, and it was used in some diseases of trees and cattle. Plin. 
xv. 18. 

Antes, pi. This word seems to signify properly a square or 
parallelogram. Columella (x. 376) uses it of the beds in a garden, 
and Cato (ap. Serv.) of the troops of horse on the wings of infantry 
on their march, in Virgil it seems to signify the horti of the vine- 
yards : see on Geor. ii. 278. 

Aratio, aporos (v. aro, dpoco), ploughing, tilling land in general. 
The following was the Roman mode of tillage. As they almost 
always fallowed, the land, after the corn had been cut and carried, 
which took place in the summer, was let to lie idle in general till the 
following February, but in some cases only till about the middle of 
January. They then broke it, or gave it a first ploughing (proscissio) , 
and so it was let to lie till midsummer, when they gave it a cross- 
ploughing {iteratio), i. e. one at right angles to the former. The 
verb expressing this process is offringo. In the beginning of Sep- 
tember it got a third ploughing (tertiatio), of course at right angles 
with the cross-ploughing. After this ploughing, if it required it, it 
got a harrowing (pccatio) with rakes or hurdles. Plin. xviii. 20. 
The seed was then sown under the plough, or the ground was 
ploughed into ridges (liras), and the seed sown on it and then har- 
rowed in : see Sementis. Sometimes the land got only the two first 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 349 

ploughings, and was sown with the third. Varr. i. 29 ; Plin. ut sup. 
When the corn was growing, it was hoed and weeded : see Sarritio, 
Rimcatio. 

The Roman plough having neither coulter nor mouldboard, the 
mode of ploughing differed materially from ours. Instead of making 
a furrow and then another at some feet distant, and ploughing the 
intermediate space alternately to one side and the other, the ancient 
ploughman went and returned in the same track. The length of 
this was not to exceed 120 feet (that of the actus or half-juger);; and 
as he went up it he inclined his plough to the right, so that the 
share formed an angle with the soil, and cutting it obliquely turned 
up the sod. As he returned he came down the same furrow, but 
this time he held the plough straight, so that the share took up the 
earth which in going up it had left in the left-hand side of the furrow. 
Colum. ii. 4. Lazy ploughmen sometimes neglected to do this, thus 
leaving what was called a scamnum or balk, that is a ridge or strip 
of untilled land. In order to detect this, the farmer was directed to 
run a pole into the ploughed land in various places, as the scamnum 
would be detected by its resistance. A consequence of this mode of 
ploughing was that the furrows did not appear ; hence Pliny (xviii. 
19) gives it as the test of land being well-tilled, that one should not 
be able to tell which way the plough had gone. 

The number of ploughings which land got in general was, as we 
have seen, three or four ; but Pliny (ut sup.) says that strong rich 
land was the better for getting five, and adds that in Tuscany the 
strong land required nine, — a thing quite contrary to the practice in 
that country at the present day. On the other hand, the light poor 
soils got only one tilling some time between midsummer and the 
autumnal equinox (Geor. i. 67; Plin. ib. 19), and the seed-ploughing 
at the usual time. 

The usual mode of ploughing was with a pair of oxen yoked 
abreast by means of the jugum, by which they drew : see Jugum. 
Pliny (ib. 18) speaks of eight oxen being yoked to one plough as a 
thing not uncommon in Italy. In that case they must have drawn 
by means of whipple-trees, traces and collars, things of which we 
find no mention in the rural writers. It does not appear whether 
the ploughman had reins or not. Columella (ii. 2) says he should 
urge on his cattle with the voice rather than by blows ; he strongly 
condemns the use of the goad (stimulus), as it tended to make the 
oxen vicious, but says that the whip (flagellum) might be used oc- 
casionally. It is to be here observed that the ancient ploughman 
was not far from his cattle ; for the stiva was upright in the burls, 



350 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

of which there could hardly be more than two or three feet before 
it ; while of the eight-foot pole, five feet must have been between the 
oxen, so that the distance between them and the ploughman could 
not have been more than five or six feet. At the end of the furrow 
the ploughman was to stop his oxen and let them rest awhile, 
raising the yoke from off their necks, to let them cool, and to pre- 
vent their being chafed. Mules and asses were sometimes used for 
ploughing, but never horses. The ploughman carried a paddle 
(ralla) for cleaning the lower part of his plough, and when working 
in vineyards or olive-grounds a small axe (securicula, Plin.) or mat- 
tock (dolabra, Colum.), to cut away the upper roots of the trees 
from before his plough. 

Arator, dporrjp, 6 apovv, i. q. bubuleus, which see. This term was 
also used in opposition to pastor, and equivalent to agricola, for the 
tillage-farmer. Colum. vi. praef. 

Aratrum, tiporpov, the plough. It is remarkable that the rural 
writers have left us no description of this most important implement. 
Varro, in another work (De L. L. v. 135), has given us the names 
of the different parts of which it was composed, as also has Virgil 
(Geor. i. 169 seq), and Hesiod ("Ep-y. 427) has left us a slight sketch 
of the ancient Grecian plough. The parts of the plough which they 
mention are the burls, temo, stiva, manicula, dentate, and vomis, which 
belonged to all ploughs, and the awes, which were put on in sow- 
ing-time : see each of these terms. 

In the absence of descriptions, we must have recourse to ancient 
medals and to the ploughs still in use in the south of Europe. 
Voss has given us figures of no less than fourteen Italian and Sici- 
lian and one Provencal plough, Martyn of one used in Lombardy, 
and Loudon of one from the south of France and another from Va- 
lencia in Spain. On viewing these ploughs, we may observe, that, 
excepting in Martyn's Lombard plough, there is no coulter, and, with 
two exceptions, there is only one handle. Their general structure 
is the buris or beam, which is usually curved, with its convex side 
uppermost ; to the upper end of it is fastened by means of a pin or 
cord the temo or pole which goes between the oxen, having at its 
end the jugum or yoke to which they are attached ; the temo forms 
an angle with the ground, instead of running horizontally. The 
other end of the buris turns down to the ground, and has fastened 
to it horizontally the dentate, a part of the dentate going on each 
side of it. The dentate runs to a point ; in the ruder ploughs it is 
without any covering, in others it is plated with iron, in others it is 
fitted with a moveable share. The stiva or handle is generally mor- 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 351 

ticed into the bm°is either vertically or at a small angle ; in some 
cases it and the buris are all one" piece, and the temo is morticed into 
or fastened to it. At the upper end of the stiva is a short cross-bar 
(manicula) by means of which the ploughman directs his plough. 

Simond (Travels in Italy, &c, p. 4-77) thus describes the plough 
which he saw at Sciarra on the south coast of Sicily (and it exactly 
resembles that which Voss gives from Palagonia in the central part 
of that island) : — " It consists of a shaft eleven feet in length, to 
which the oxen are fastened by means of an awkward collar, while 
the other end is morticed obliquely into another piece of timber five 
feet long ; one end sharp, scratching the ground, and the other end 
held by the ploughman, who, on account of the shortness of it, bends 
almost double while at work. The end in the ground is often, but 
not always, shod with iron ; it has neither coulter nor mouldboard. 
This instrument scarcely penetrates deeper than a hog with his snout, 
and is not kept straight without great difficulty." 

From what precedes we think that a tolerably clear idea may be 
formed of the plough which Virgil describes. That of Hesiod is 
evidently of the same kind : — 

(pepeiv 8e yvrjv, St av evprjs, 
els oIkov, kclt opos 8i£rjp.evos fj kclt apovpav, 
■nplvivov' os yap ftovcrlv dpovv oxvpararos ecrnv, 
evr av 'Adrjvairjs 8paos, iv e\vp.aTi Tirj^as, 
yopxpoio-iv ire\ao~as TTpoo-aprjperai Ifjro^orj'l. — -Epya, 427. 

or' av aitpov e^erX?/? 
X«pi \a[3uiv opnrjKa j3oav iirl vara lurjai 
ev8pvov eknovraiv p.eadj3co. — lb. 467- 

Here the yvrjs is the buris, the Tkvaa the dentale, the la-rojioevs the 
temo, the exerKrj the stiva of Virgil's plough. The three remaining 
terms are more difficult to explain : the 0/3707! might be a part of the 
exerkr] (probably therefore the manicula), and so Goettling would 
seem to understand it,: as he joins it with anpov ; while others take 
it to be the goad. We think the former is right, and that im vara 
iKTjai means that he reaches to the oxen, with the whip or goad un- 
derstood. The evbpvov would seem to be the same with the 1<tto- 
j3oeis, or possibly the whole plough ; and as Callimachus has p,eo-- 
cra/3a fiovs virohvs, it would appear that the p.ecra(3oi> was the yoke, 
though some render it the thong that fastened the yoke to the 
pole. 

The following lines of an Italian poet of the last century will show 



352 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

how little the mode of ploughing had altered from the time of Virgil 
and Columella: — 

" II robusto aratore 

Stava al arso terreno 

Col vomere tagliente aprendo il seno ; 

Acceso in volto, di sudor bagnato, 

Col crine scompigliato, 

Curvo le spalle, il cigolante aratro 

Con una man prernea, 

Che col chino ginocchio accompagnava ; 

E coll' altra stringea 

Pungolo acuto, e colla rozza voce 

E coi colpi frequenti 

Affrettava de' bovi i passi lenti." 

Pignotti, Favole, fav. 18. 

Arbustum, i. e. arboretum (see p. 342), a place full of trees, a 
wood. Cato, 7- Lucretius continually uses the plural arbusta for 
arbores, and Virgil, except in two places (Ec. iii. 10 ; Geor. ii. 416), 
follows his example. In the rural writers, however, arbustum is a 
plantation of trees in regular rows, in order that vines might be 
trained on them, and is opposed to the vinea in which they were 
trained on espaliers or in other modes. The trees used to form the 
arbustum were the elm, the poplar, the ash, the fig, the olive, etc. 
They were planted in rows, forty feet asunder, if the land between 
them was to be tilled for corn (as was usually done), otherwise 
twenty feet ; the distance between the trees in the row was to be 
twenty feet. The trees, as they grew, were to be pruned, so that 
the first seven or eight feet of their stem might be free from branches. 
Above that height the branches on each side were to be formed into 
tabulata or stories, three feet asunder, and not in the same plane, 
on which the vines might be trained. The vine was to be planted 
a foot and a half from the tree. Colum. v. 7 ; Id. De Arb. 16 ; 
Plin. xvii. 23. 

Area, aX<a, the threshing-floor. In the East, and in the south of 
Europe, corn is threshed in the open air, not, as with us, in the 
covered barn. The rural writers give the following directions for 
forming an area or threshing-floor. An elevated spot, to which the 
wind would have free access, was to be selected, but care was to be 
taken that it should not be on the side from which the wind usually 
blew on the house and garden, as the chaff was injurious to trees 
and vegetables. It was to be circular in form, and elevated a little 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 353 

in the centre, so that the rain might not lie on it. It was sometimes 
flagged, but was more usually formed of argilla, with which chaff 
and amurca were well mixed. It was then made solid and level with 
rammers or a rolling-stone, in order that it might not crack, and so 
give harbour to mice, ants, or any other vermin, and that grass 
might not grow on.it. Beside the area was a building named nu- 
bilarium, into which the corn was carried when there appeared any 
danger of rain or storm. See Cato, 91, 129 ; Varro, i. 51 ; Colum. 
ii. 20. 

Argilla, apyiWos, potter's clay. Creta qua utuntur figuli, Colum. 
iii. 11. 

Armentarius, fiovK.6\os, neatherd. The armentarius was the 
man who had charge of the oxen when grazing in a herd. Lucre- 
tius thus distinguishes the armentarius from the pastor and the 
bubulcus : — 

" Praeterea jam pastor et armentarius omnis 
Et robustus item curvi moderator aratri." — vi. 1250. 
Armentum, dyek-q, a herd of oxen, horses or asses. This word 
seems to have originally belonged to oxen alone, whence Varro's 
derivation of it (L. L. v. 96), as being i. q. arimenlum, from aro, is 
not an unlikely one. 

Arvum, cipovpa, tillage-land. Quod aratum necdum satum est, 
Varro, i. 29. 

Auris, a mould-board. When the plough was prepared for 
seed-sowing, the aures were put to it, so that it then resembled our 
strike-furrow plough. Pliny (xviii. 20) would seem to speak of only 
one auris, but his words are perhaps not to be taken strictly. 

Bidens, SUeXka. This implement, which is still used in Italy, 
is a large, heavy hoe (the head of it weighing about ten pounds) ; it 
has two teeth or prongs, whence its name. If we conceive a hoe, 
with its iron head long, broad and heavy, and a piece cut out of it 
in the middle, so as to leave two prongs, we shall have a tolerably 
clear idea of the bidens. It is chiefly used for moving the earth to 
the distance of a foot and a half round the vines, as it does not cut 
the roots like the spade. It is also used for breaking up land that 
is too hard to be wrought by the plough or the spade. It is of course 
employed more in the manner of a pickaxe than of a hoe ; hence 
Virgil says, duros jactare bidentes, Geor. ii. 355 ; and he elsewhere 
says (ib. 400), that the clods were to be broken, versis bidentibus, 
i. e. by striking them with the back of the heavy bidens. Its weight 
is intimated in these words ef Lucretius (v. 209), valido consueta 
lidenti ingemere. The Italians call this implement bidente, the 
French hoyau or fossoir. 



25± 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 



Bipalium. This was a large kind of spade, of which the exact 
form is not known. Its iron was usually about two feet in length* 
Some say it is i. q. bis-pala, as being twice the size of the pala. 

Bubulcus, i. q. orator, 6 apovv, the ploughman ; in Italian, bifolco. 
The word carter, as it is employed in a great part of England, cor- 
responds pretty r nearly with the Latin bubulcus, for his office was to 
attend to the draught-oxen, whence bis name (a bubus), and which 
he drove in the cart as well as in the plough. Nothing can be 
more incorrect than rendering (as is so often done) bubulcus neat- 
herd. The bubulcus, Columella says (i. 9), should be tall, so that, 
without stooping, he might lean on the stiva, and so keep the plough 
in the ground ; he should also have a loud voice, in order to terrify 
his oxen. 

Bums, also Urvum, yvrjs, the ploughbeam. We have nothing ia 
our plough exactly answering to the burls. It was a piece of strong 
wood, naturally or artificially curved, to one end of which was 
affixed the pole, to the other the dentale, and into it was morticed 
the stiva. It therefore formed the body of the plough, which, from 
its shape, is termed by Lucretius curvtim, and by Virgil and Ovid 
aduncum. In Virgil's plough the burls is of elm, while in that of 
Hesiod it is of ilex (irplvos) : see Aratrum. 

Calathus, Kaka&os. The proper Latin name, Servius tells us 
(Ec. ii. 45), is quaslllum. This was a basket of wicker-work, nar- 
row at the bottom, and widening as it went up. It may be seen on 
the capitals of the Corinthian columns, if we abstract the acanthus- 
leaves : see Vitruvius, iv. 1. Women used it for holding the wool 
when they were spinning, for gathering flowers in, etc. New 
cheese and various other things were also.put into calathi. 

Caxistrum, Kavao-rpov. This was another kind of basket, used 
chiefly for holding bread : it was mostly woven of willow-rods. 
Pallad. xii. 17. 

Caprarius, ai77okos, the goatherd. 

Caseus, Tvpos. The ancient, like the modern Italians, made 
cheese from the milk of the cow, the sheep, and the goat. They 
coagulated it with the rennet of the hare, the goat, or the lamb ; 
the last being the least esteemed (Varro, ii. 11) ; also with the milky 
juice of the fig-tree, with the flower of the wild thistle, and with 
other vegetable substances. They do not seem to have used the 
rennet of the calf. The milk was to be placed within a moderate 
distance of the fire, that it might have the requisite degree of heat ; 
and as soon as it coagulated, it was to be put into baskets (fiscellae 
or calathi), or into moulds (formae), in order that the whey (serum) 
might separate and drain off. When the curd was grown somewhat 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 355 

solid, they put weights on it to force out the remainder of the whey. 
They then took the cheeses out of the baskets or shapes, and laid 
them on clean boards, in a cool and shady place, and sprinkled them, 
with salt to extract the remainder of the whey ; and then, when 
they had hardened, they pressed them again, and sprinkled them 
with hot salt, and gave them another pressing. At the end of nine 
days from the commencement they washed the cheeses with fresh 
water, and laid them to dry on hurdles, in a cool place, taking care 
not to let them touch one another. Thence they were removed and 
stored on shelves, in a close dry room, where they remained for use. 
There was another kind of cheese made for immediate consumption. 
This, as soon as it was taken out of the baskets, was plunged into 
salt or brine, and then was let to dry gradually in the sun. There 
was a third kind, made by putting pine-nuts into the pail, and 
milking down on them, which made the milk coagulate at once. It 
was then transferred to box-wood moulds, and pressed with the 
hand. The cheese was coloured by exposing it to the smoke of 
wood or straw. Colum. vii. 8. None of these, we may observe, 
answers exactly to the Italian ricotta : see above, p. 341. 

Colliquiae, or Colliciae. The water-cuts or drains which \ 
carried the water out of the furrows or elices into the ditches. 

Corbis, a large basket for holding or carrying grain or ears of 
corn in. Varr. i. 52. 

Crates (whence our crate), a hurdle. It was sometimes a kind 
of open mat, being made of straw, fern, sedge, or flags. Colum. xii. 
15. These however seem rather to have been so named from ana- 
logy ; their use was by being placed at an angle (like a roof) over 
the figs when set to dry, to protect them from the night-dew or the 
rain. The ordinary crates was used for harrowing the ground after 
ploughing or after sowing, for which purpose it was frequently 
toothed (dentata), that is, furnished with wooden or iron teeth or 
pins. Plin. xviii. 20. It was drawn by men, for the ancients did 
not harrow their ploughed land with horses or oxen. From the 
mention of the teeth we may infer that it was like our bush-harrow, 
a frame of wood with bushes or branches twined through it. 
These were, it would appear, usually arbutus-boughs. Geor. i. 166. 

Culter. See Vomer. 

Dentale, or Dens, eXvfxa, the share-beam or share-head : a piece 
of wood fixed horizontally on the lower end of the buris, and to 
which the share was fitted. In some cases the dentale was itself 
shod with iron. It is not certain whether it was one solid piece of 
timber, with a space to admit the end of the hurts, or two pieces 



356 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

fastened on each side of it and running to a point ; the former seems 
the more probable, and the duplici dorso of Virgil may only allude to 
its position as on each side of the buris, and its support of the two 
awes. The plural dentalia is used by this poet in speaking of one 
plough, but it is probably nothing more than a usual poetic licence. 
Hesiod directs the dentale to be made of oak. 

Dolabra. This implement was apparently somewhat like our 
mattock ; for it was used in cutting the roots of trees and iu digging 
the ground or levelling walls, etc. Afros cum dolabris ad subruendum 
ab imo murum mitt it, Liv. xxi. 1 1 . Glebae omnes dolabris dissipandae 
sunt, Pallad. ii. 3. Nee minus dolabra quam vomer e bubulcus utatur 
(i. e. for grubbing and for cutting away roots). Colum. ii. 11. 

Falx, bpinavov, hook. Under this word were included all kinds 
of cutting implements of the hook-form, from the sithe to the pru- 
ning-hook. The reaping-hook was called in Campania secula (whence 
our sickle). Varro, L. L. v. 137- 

The falx vinitoria, as described by Columella (iv. 25), is just the 
same as the one used at the present day in Tuscany, being much of 
the form of our bill-hook, having like it the back formed into a small 
hatchet, but in a half-moon ; those that we saw at Albano, near 
Rome, were precisely like that in the hand of the image of the god 
Saturn. Columella says that the straight part next the handle was 
named culter, the curved part sinus, that next it scalprum, and the 
hooked extremity rostrum : the apex of the half-moon hatchet was 
called mucro. Each of these parts had its separate and distinct use 
in the work of pruning. 

Fiscella, Fiscellus, Fiscinus, raXapos, TaXapicrKos : a small 
basket, formed sometimes of willows, sometimes of rushes, or such 
like ; the former was used for carrying grapes, the latter for making 
cheese. Tunc fiscella levi detexta est vimine junci, Raraque per 
nexus est via facta sero : Tibull. ii. 3, 15. Baskets put on the oxen 
when ploughing, by way of muzzles, were also named fiscellae : 
Cato, 54. 

Fundus, farm, estate. The Roman fundus (like the Italian 
fodere) was a quantity of land with a house and farm-buildings on 
it, and which was a man's own estate. If there were no buildings 
on it, it was an ager. Florentinus Dig. leg. 211. 

Inoculatio, or Emplastratio, ivo<p6a\icrp.6s. This process, 
which our gardeners call inoculation or budding, was performed in 
the following manner by the ancients. Having selected a bud on a 
clean and healthy bough of the tree from which they wished to pro- 
pagate, they raised off two square inches of the bark round it, so that 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 357 

the bud should be exactly in the centre. They then took off an equal 
space of the bark from a healthy bough of the tree, which they had 
selected for inoculation, and put in its place the bark containing the 
bud, taking care that the edges of the two barks should join and fit 
accurately to each other. When this was done, they bound the 
whole, leaving the bud free, covered the binding with moist clay and 
left it so for three weeks. They also cut away the shoots and branch 
above the bud, that they might not draw away the sap. Cato, 42 ; 
Colum. v. 11. Our gardeners bud nearly in the same way, but in a 
simpler manner. It was chiefly the olive and the fig that the ancients 
budded. Pliny (xvii. 14) speaks of a more ancient kind of inocula- 
tion, by opening a bud with an instrument like a shoemaker's awl, 
and inserting a semen (bud ?) taken from another tree with the same 
implement. 

Insitio, e/jiCpvTela, grafting. The ancients employed the two 
modes of grafting which we term crown- and cleft-grafting. In 
performing the former, they sawed off the head of the plant on 
which they were to make the graft, taking care not to injure the 
bark, and then with a sharp knife made the sawn place quite smooth 
and even. They then inserted a thin wedge of iron or bone to the 
depth of three fingers between the bark and the wood. Having 
done this, they took the shoot which they wished to insert and 
pared it down on one side to the length of three fingers, taking care 
not to injure the pith or the bark on the other side. They then 
drew out the wedge and put the shoot in its place, keeping the bark 
outside. The process was repeated for as many shoots as they 
wished to insert ; the whole was then bound up and covered with 
moist clay. Sometimes they made cuts with a saw in the trunk, 
and having made them perfectly smooth with a small knife, inserted 
the shoots in them. In cleft-grafting they cut a young tree down 
to within a foot and a half of the ground, and having smoothed the 
surface as before, they cleft it to the depth of three fingers and put 
a wedge into it. They then pared down two shoots in a wedge- 
form to the length of three fingers, taking care not to jag or break 
the bark on the sides ; and having put them in, one at each end of 
the cleft, with their outer bark corresponding with that of the tree, 
they drew out the wedge and bound up the tree and heaped the 
earth about it as high as the graft. Cato, 41 ; Colum. v. 11. There 
was another mode of grafting vines, namely by boring a hole 
obliquely in them with an auger, and fixing in it a branch from 
anothervine. Cato, 41 ; Colum. iv. 29 ; Plin. xvii. 15. Cato also di- 
rects to take the shoots of two contiguous vines, and to cut the ends 



358 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

off them obliquely and then to splice them as it were together, and 
when they had coalesced to cut off the one which was to be grafted 
on the other. 

Columella (ut supra) says that the old agriculturists maintained 
that it was only trees that had a similar bark and fruit that could 
be grafted on each other, and the universal experience of the mo- 
derns is to the same effect. Yet he asserts that this is an error, and 
that every kind of shoot can be grafted on every kind of tree, and he 
gives as an example a method of grafting an olive on a fig-tree. 
Palladius in like manner, in his poetic fourteenth book De Insi- 
tione, enumerates a number of strange grafts, passing the skill of 
any modern gardener. As however the ancients had no mode of 
grafting which is not well known to the moderns, and as trees can- 
not have changed their nature, we must reject these accounts. Nei- 
ther Columella nor Palladius says that he had seen any of these 
extraordinary grafts performed. 

Irpex, ap-n-dyrj. Varro (L. L. v. 13G) and Festus (s. v.) describe 
this implement as a kind of iron rake, or a board or bar (regula) 
with some teeth in it, which was drawn by oxen for the purpose of 
eradicating weeds in land. The Italian term for harrow (erpice) is 
derived from it ; but it is plain that it did not correspond with the 
modern harrow, as it does not seem to have been employed in tilling 
the land with the plough. It was used perhaps, as we use our 
harrow on meadow-land, to eradicate moss, etc. 

Iteratio, repetition. It is used of aratio, occatio, and sarritio, 
to express the repetition of these operations. 

Jugum, £vyos, yoke. This was a piece of wood, straight in the 
middle and curved toward the ends, which was attached to the end 
of the pole of the plough or cart, and went over the necks of the 
oxen, which drew by means of it. It was by the neck the oxen 
drew : see Aratio. The yoke is still employed by our Sussex farmers. 
The ancients also used the yoke in carriages drawn by horses or 
mules, but the draught must have been by traces, and the yoke 
have only served to keep them close to the pole. According to 
Virgil (Geor. i. 173) the jugum was made of the wood of the lime- 
tree, or perhaps of beech. Jugum was also used to express the 
cross-pieces in the vine-espaliers. 

Labrum, a pan. It was made of potter's clay, sometimes of 
stone. Columella (xii. 15) says that figs were sometimes trodden 
like dough in labris before they were packed in jars. 

Ligo. The ancients have left us no description of this imple- 
ment It is only therefore by examining the passages of the classics 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 359 

in which it occurs, that we may expect to be able to form an idea 
of it:— 

"Nee dubitem longis purgare ligonibus arva." — Ov. Ex P. i. 8, 59. 

" Cum bene jactati pulsarant arva ligones." — Id. Am. hi. 10, 31. 

" Abacta nulla Veia conscientia 
Ligonibus duris humum 
Exhauriebat, ingemens laboribus, 

Quo posset infossus puer/' etc. — Hor. Epod. 5, 29. 

" et tamen urgues 

Jampridem non tacta ligonibus arva." — Hor. S. i. 14, 26. 

" jam falces avidis et aratra caminis 

Rastraque et incurvi saevum rubuere ligones." — 

Stat. Th. hi. 588. 
" Centeno gelidum ligone Tibur 
Vel Praeneste domata." — Martial, iv. 64, 32. 
"Mox bene cum glebis vivacem cespitis herbam 

Contundat marrae velfracti dente ligonis." — Colum. x. 88. 

The ligo was therefore an implement with a long handle, a curved 
blade (dens), and it was raised and struck into the ground. It was 
used in breaking the surface of the soil, and many were employed 
for that purpose at the same time, and also for making holes in the 
ground. It therefore must have been a kind of pickaxe, and was 
probably the same as the Italian marrone. Columella, as we see, 
directs the gardener to use a ligo of which the blade was broken for 
crushing the clods. 

Lira. See Porca. 

Malleolus, a cutting or shoot employed for propagating the vine. 
Columella (iii. 6) says it is a young shoot grown from a shoot of the 
preceding year. When taking it, the old shoot was cut, and a por- 
tion of it left at each side of the bottom of the young shoot, which 
thus presented the appearance of a little hammer, whence its name. 

Marra. The marra used by the Italian peasantry of the present 
day is a kind of pickaxe or mattock, and in the Italian language the 
flukes of an anchor are called marre. This was therefore most pro- 
bably the form of the ancient marra. Columella (x. 72) calls it 
broad (lata), and (v. 89) he directs it to be used for breaking clods. 
Pliny (xviii. 16) speaks of cutting lucerne when three years old close 
to the ground marris, and in another almost unintelligible place 
(xvii. 21) he mentions it as used with other implements in making 
trenches in a vineyard. 



360 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

• Mehga. See Messis. 

Merges. " Mergites fasces culmorum spicas habentium, quas 
raetentes brachiis sinistris complectuntur ; quidam cavos vocant." 
Phylarg. on Geor. ii. 517. Fasces is here i. q. manipulos (dpay- 
fiara) : see the place of Varro quoted v. Messis, and the place of 
Eustathius, ibid, ad fin. 

Messis, depiapos (v. Meto, apaa, 3ep[fa), reaping, harvest. 
Varro says (i. 50) that they reaped in three ways in Italy. One 
was to cut the straw close to the ground with a hook or sickle, and 
then to go over what had been cut down, and taking oft* the heads, 
put them into a basket and send them to the area, leaving the straw 
to be gathered to the acervus. This was the mode in Umbria. In the 
vicinity of Rome they used to cut the straw in the same manner, but 
in the middle, and put the ears, with the straw that was attached 
to them, into the basket. The third mode he describes thus : — 
" Ligneum habent incurvum batillum in quo sitextremo serrula fer- 
rea. Haec cum comprehendit fascem spicarum desecat et straraenta 
stantia in segete relinquit." The batillum was properly an iron pan 
used for carrying live coal and other hot things : see Hor. S. i. 5, 36 ; 
and the implement which Varro describes must have been of the 
same form, its use being to receive the ears of corn as they were cut 
off by the serrula. This we must conceive to have had a number of 
long teeth, in form like those of an eel-spear, and turning back a 
little so as to throw the ears, as they were cut, into the batillum. 
The reaper pushed the implement before him, against the standing 
corn, and when the batillum was full he emptied it into the basket. 
Pliny (ut sup.) and Palladius (vii. 2) describe an implement on the 
same principle, but on a much larger scale, which was used in the 
Gauls. It was mounted on two wheels, and was propelled by an 
ox, who was yoked in a pair of shafts behind ; the reaper regulated 
the machine, elevating or lowering it according to the height of the 
corn. Columella, after mentioning the cutting with a hook (ii. 21), 
adds, "Multi mergis alii pectinibus spicam ipsam legunt;" and 
Pliny (ut sup.) says, " Stipulae alibi mediae falce praeciduntur, 
atque inter duas mergites spica distringitur." 

No one has yet succeeded in explaining these passages. The 
merga and the merges are supposed to be the same, and Festus de- 
fines the merga to be a fork used for raising the handfuls of cut 
corn. Pliny says the pecten was used for gathering the pods of 
panic or millet, the halm of which, he says, was of little or no use. 

It is remarkable that, both in the East and in Greece, the corn 
was bound in sheaves (dpaXkai), as with us. Sheaves are often 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 361 

spoken of in the Bible, ex. gr. Gen. xxxvii. 7 ; and in Homer we meet 
the following reaping-scene : — 

'Ev 8' iriBei repevos (3advXrfiov' evda 8' epidoi 

TJfxav, 6£elas bpeirdvas iv ^epalv e'xovres. 

bpdypara 8' aXXa per oypov inrjrpipa tv'ltvtov epa£e, 

aXXa 8' dpaXXoSerrjpes iv iXXe8avoicri 8eovro. 

rpels 8' ap dpaWoSerrjpes icpeo-raaav' avrap orvKrOe 

iraibes 8paypevovres, iv dyKctXlSecro-L (pepovres, 

doTi-ep^ey Trdpexov. — II. xviii. 550. 
On this Eustathius notes : dpdXXi], to vrr dyKaXr] <Tvp,TrUapa rcov 
dpaypdrcov' dpdXXiov be, o~)(olviov a> ras dpdWas, o icrri to. dpdypara 
toiv dTaxvcov, i8eo-povV d/xaAXoSerjjpes 8e, ol ras dpdXXas rSiv dpay- 
fidrcov 8ecrpovvTes. 

Novalis ager, or Novale. By this we find two kinds of land 
indicated. The one was unbroken grass-land. Cum agricola quam 
maxime subacto et puro solo gaudeat, pastor novali graminosoque, 
Colum. vi. praef. Tale fere est in novalibus caesa veterisilva,Plin. 
xvii. 5. The other, land that was tilled and let to rest alternately. 
Qui intermittitur, a novando novalis, Varr. L. L. v. 39- Novale est 
quod altemis annis seritur, Plin. xviii. 19. 

Nubilarium. This was a shed or building erected close to the 
area. Its use was for protecting the corn, previous to its being 
threshed, from the weather (Colum. ii. 21); or, if during the threshing 
rain or storm came on, to receive the threshed or unthreshed corn. 
Varr. i. 13 ; Colum. i. 6 ; Pall. i. 36. 

Occatio, (u.occo) covering in (Pall.vi.4) or breaking. The occatio 
of the Romans was nearly equivalent to our harrowing, but it was 
done by hand, either wifh the hurdle or the rake. Pliny (xviii. 20) 
says that after the cross-ploughing, the land, if it required it, should 
get an occation with the hurdle or rake ; though Columella (ii. 4) 
says that the Romans of the old time held that land to be badly 
tilled that required it. An occation after the seed was sown was 
given in a particular case : see Sementis. The proper meaning of 
occo seems to be to pulverise or break up ; hence Varro (i. 21) says 
it is i. q. occido ; but Cicero (De Sen. 1 5) , regarding it as covering 
in, makes it i. q. occaeco. 

Olea, or Oliva, iXala, the olive-tree. Oletum, or Olivetum, 
iXaid>v, an olive- ground. The ancients cultivated the olive in the 
following manner. They dug well to the depth of three feet 
the place intended for the seminarium or nursery ; they then took 
clean healthy branches of their olive-trees, about as thick as could 



362 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

"be grasped in the hand, and sawed them into truncheons or lengths, 
(taleas, truncos) of about eighteen inches each, taking care not 
to injure the bark, and paring the ends smooth and marking them 
in order that the lower end might be put into the ground. This 
end was then daubed with a mixture of dung and wood-ashes, and 
the pieces were set at a depth of four fingers, i. e. three inches, in the 
ground. During the first two years the land was kept constantly 
hoed, but the plants were not touched ; in the third year all the 
tranches but two were cut off; in the fourth year the weaker of 
these two was removed ; in the fifth year they were transplanted 
into the future olive-ground, and set in holes which had been dug 
the year before. The rows in which they were set were to run east 
and west, that the healthy west-wind might have free access to them. 
If the land was rich and was intended for tillage, they were to be 
sixty feet asunder, and the spaces between the plants forty feet. If 
the land was poor and unfit for corn, the rows were only twenty or 
five-and-twenty feet apart. Grains of barley were spread under the 
plants in the holes, and gravel mixed with clay and a little dung was 
put about them. The ground was to be ploughed at least twice a 
year, and the soil about the plants to be stirred with the bidcns. 
After the autumnal equinox they were to be ablaqueated like the 
vines. Every third 3^ear they were to be dunged, and after some 
years (generally the eighth) to be pruned; for there was an old saying, 
to wit, eum qui aret olivetum rogare fructum ; qui stercoret exorare; 
qui caedat cogere. It was also necessary to keep the trees clean and 
free from moss, and to dress them occasionally with amurca and 
urine; Colum. v. 9. Pall. hi. 18. Columella enumerates ten different 
kinds of olives, of which three are mentioned by Virgil, Geor. ii. 86. 

Oleum, tkaiov, oil. The ancients made their oil in the following 
manner. The olives were to be gathered if possible with the hand, 
and with the bare hand in preference to with gloves. Those that 
could not be come at with the hand were to be beaten down, but 
■with reeds rather than with poles, as being less likely to injure the 
tree : the beaters were to avoid striking the fruit. The time of 
gathering the olives was when they began to turn black ; usually 
about the beginning of December. They were to be put into the 
press as soon as possible ; meanwhile they were to be laid up in sepa- 
rate compartments of a repository in a kind of baskets, so that some 
portion of the amurca might disengage itself and run off. The olives 
were to be put in new baskets (fiscinis), and so to be put into the 
press and pressed gently. What ran off was to be received in a 
round pan (labrum), whence it was to be transferred to earthen vessels. 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 363 

The olives were then to be pressed a second time, and with more 
force, and what ran off to be received in a second set of vessels ; and 
then a third time, and the fluid received in other vessels. Great 
care was to be taken that the vessels and everything connected with 
the operation should have been well-washed and scoured, and should 
be perfectly clean. It was also of great importance not to break 
the stones {nuclei) of the olives, as this would give the oil a bad taste. 
Columella directs that there should be thirty vessels in each set for 
the transference of the oil from one to the other, in order to free it 
from the amurca. If in consequence of the cold the oil did not 
readily separate from the amurca, they added salt or nitron, which 
combiried with and precipitated the latter without affecting the oil. 
The vessels in which the oil, when perfectly purified, was kept were 
to be either of glass or of potter's ware, varnished with wax or gum 
that the oil might not exude. 

Opilio (quasi Ovilio ; in the poets upilio, with the u long for the 
sake of the metre), ttoi/x?)!/, shephei'd. Under the term pastor were 
included the opilio and the caprarius. 

Pala. This implement appears to have been a spade and shovel 
combined, for it was strong like the former for digging, and broad 
like the latter for throwing up the earth. Its head was of course 
iron: Colum. x. 45. Cato (c. 11) mentions palas ligneas. These were 
probably wooden shovels, like those used in our mills and granaries, 
and employed in winnowing the corn ; for Tertullian (De Prae- 
script. 3) renders the tttvov of the Gospel (Mat. iii. 12) by pala. 

Palea (whence paglia It., paille Fr.), chaff. This term was in- 
clusive, not merely of the integument of the grain, but also of the 
short straw that was cut with the ear. 

Pampinatio, fi\ao-To\oyLa, the clearing away of the young shoots 
(pampini) and leaves of the vines in the summer-time. 

Pastinatio (v. pastino), the act of digging the land with a spade, 
etc., especially land destined for the formation of a vineyard. 

Pastinum, a dibble. It was of iron and forked, and chiefly used 
for setting the malleoli of vines. 

Pastor, noi^u, vo/j.evs, shepherd. The pastor of the Romans was 
the person who had charge of the sheep and goats belonging to 
the farm. As the word signifies feeder, Varro (iii. 6) has pastor 
pavonum and (iii. 7) P- columbarius. Pastor was also used like our 
word grazier, as opposed tothe arator or tillage-farmer. Varr. ii. 1 ; 
Colum. vi. praef. 

Pecus, -oris, andPECtrs, -udis. It is not easy to distinguish between 
these words ; but the former seems rather, like our word cattle, to 

r2 



364 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

include a number of the same kind, — the latter, like our least, to 
signify the individual ; but this distinction is little attended to by- 
ancient writers. Pecus is most frequently used of small cattle, sheep, 
goats and swine, and armentum of large cattle, oxen, horses and asses. 

Plaustrum, or Plostrum, a^ai^a, cart or wagon. It was drawn 
by a yoke or pair of oxen, mules or asses : Cato 62. It must have 
been four-wheeled, as the cattle were always yoked abreast. Its 
wheels, as would appear from Virgil (Geor. ii. 444), were solid, not 
spoked. 

Porca, or Lira, a ridge or drill. Quod est inter duos sulcos, elata 
terra, dicitur porca, Varr. i. 29. For the breadth of the porca, 
see Sementis. 

Pratum (quasi paratum, Varr. i. 7), Xei/iiiv, meadow. The pratum 
was more usually laid-down land, than land with natural grass. 
Colum. ii. 17- 

Propagatio, propagation by layers (propagines). This was used 
in a great variety of trees and shrubs (Cato 51, 133), but chiefly in 
the vine. Columella (De Arb. 7) directs it to be done in the follow- 
ing manner. A hole four feet every way was to be dug close to the 
parent plant, in order that no roots of any other might interfere with 
the layer. A shoot was then to be bent down into this hole ; in the 
part of it that was to be covered with earth four buds were left to 
throw out roots, and all those on the part between this and the parent 
were taken off. The end of the shoot, with two or at most three 
buds, was left above-ground. In the third year it was separated 
from the parent plant. Another method was to lay an entire vine. 
For this purpose it was requisite to dig carefully all round the root 
of the vine, so as to loosen without injuring it. A trench was then 
to be dug of the length of the vine, in which it was laid down, and 
smaller cuts made at each side to receive its branches. The whole 
was then covered with clay, the ends of the branches being, we may 
suppose, left overground. Cato mentions another ordinary mode 
of propagation, namely passing a shoot up through a basket or a 
pot, whose bottom was perforated (like our flowerpots), and then 
filling the vessel with clay and leaving it on the tree. After two 
years the shoot having struck in the pot, it might be separated from 
the parent by cutting it below the pot and be planted out. 

Propago, a layer. 

Rastellum, dim. of Rastrum. This answered more nearly to our 
rake. Varro (i. 49) desires what hay remained on the meadow to 
be gathered rastellis and added to the mow. On the other hand, 
Suetonius (Ner. 19), when describing how Nero commenced the 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 365 

canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, says, Primus rastello humum 
effodit, et corbulae congestum humeris extulit. But the rastrum and 
the rastellum are frequently confounded. 

Rastrum, a rake. The Roman rastrum seems to have been an 
implement of somewhat similar nature with the bidens, for its teeth 
were of iron and it was used in turning up the soil, if the language 
of poets may be relied on ; see Virgil, Mx\. vii. 725 ; ix. 608. Seneca 
(De Ira ii. 25) says, Cum vidisset fodientem et altius rastrum alle- 
vantem. Cato speaks of rastra with four teeth, and that was pro- 
bably the usual number. It must have been heavy, or Virgil could 
not have said (Geor. i. 164) iniquo pondere rastri. There were also 
wooden rakes, for Columella (ii. 11) directs such to be used for 
covering lucerne. 

Restibilis ager, land that was sown every year. Ager restibi- 
lis qui restituitur et reseritur quotquot annis, Varr. L. L.v. 39. 

Runcatio, /3oraftcrju.oy, Troaa-jxos (v. runco, (3oTavi£co, rrod^co), 
weeding, extirpating weeds, briars, etc. This was done in some cases 
with the hand, in others with the hoe or other implements, ac- 
cording to circumstances. 

Rutrum, GKcmavr), dim. Rutellum. This implement seems to 
come nearer to our shovel than any other that we find mentioned 
by the ancients. It was used for mixing mortar (Vitruv. vii. 3), 
and for stirring various kinds of mixtures and composts. Cato, 37, 
128 ; Plin. xxxvi. 23. It was also used for digging, and probably, 
like the pala, answered for both spade and shovel. Varro's deriva- 
tion of it from ruo seems probable. 

Sarculum, aKciXls, ficLKeWa, a hoe. There can be little doubt 
as to this implement, as everything said about it corresponds with 
our hoe. We make it synonymous with the Greek /jAiceXKa (i. e. 
jMa^jceXKa, from iceXka>), because Hesiod ("Epy. 469 seq.) describes 
it as used for occating or covering in the seed after the plough : — 

6 oe rvrdos oiricrdev 

8 [xcbos e^av fiaKeXrjv rrovov opviBeaai rideirj, 
(Tivepua KaraKpinrraiv. 

Homer (II. xxi. 259) has a peasant opening a channel for water 
to his garden with the /jLaKeXka, in which case we should use a 
spade, but the ancients used their large hoe for this purpose. 

The dUeXXa has evidently the same relation to it that the bidens 
has to the sarculum. This last implement is called in Italian zappa 
when large, zappetta when small. 



366 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

Sarritio, o-Kcikeia, aKaXevcris, k.t.X. (v. sarrio, cr/caWa), hoeing, 
in order to remove weeds and put earth up to plants. 

Scamnum, a balk or part of the earth left untouched in plough- 
ing : see Aratio. 

Scrobs, a hole, dug to receive vines or other plants when they 
were to be put out. 

Seges, corn-land or corn-field, also the growing corn. I. Seges 
dicitur quod aratutn satum est, Varr. i. 29. Stramenta relinquunt in 
segete, Id. i. 50. Segetes agricolae subigunt aratris multo ante quam 
serant, Cic. ap. Nonium. Virg. Geor. i. 47 ; ii. 267 ; iv. 129. 2. Si in 
articulum seges ire coeperit runcare ne herbae vincant, Colum. ii. 12. 
Quae seges grandissima atque optima fluent, seorsim in aream secerni 
oportet spicas, ut semen optimum habeat, Varr. i. 52. See on Ec. ix. 
48. Seges may come from seco. 

Sementis, (rrropos, sowing. It differs from satio, which is the 
general term, inclusive of planting. The Romans sowed their corn 
in the following manner : — The land having been ploughed two or 
three times, and laid quite level, and the lumps, if any, broken with 
the crates or the rastrum, the seed was sown over it with the hand, 
out of a basket, just as we do. The aures, or mould-boards, were 
then put to the plough, and the ploughman opened the first furrow. 
At the end of it he put the plough again into the ground, but at 
such a distance as that one of the oxen might walk in the furrow 
already made, while the other was on the sown land. By this 
means what we may term a two-sod ridge was formed between the 
two furrows, containing all the seed sown on the land occupied by 
itself and by one half of each furrow. The process was continued 
till the whole field had been ridged and all the corn covered. This 
is called sowing under the plough ; and at the present day it is con- 
sidered one of the best modes of sowing corn. The Romans chiefly 
used it in their moist lands, while if the land was dry they preferred 
sowing in the furrow. In this mode they ridged the land first in 
the manner just described, and then sowed the seed, which of course 
fell into the furrows, or on the sides of the ridges. The clay 
from the tops of the ridges was then brought down on it with rakes, 
or by drawing hurdles across them. The corn therefore grew in 
the furrow, and had the advantage of all the moisture caused by 
rain or irrigation. It is plainly of this mode of covering the seed 
that Virgil speaks, Geor. i. 104. Mr. Dickson, who alone seems to 
have understood this passage rightly, observes (i. 518), that Colu- 
mella (ii. 4) uses cumulus for the crown or top of the ridge. 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 367 

Seminarium, a nursery, a place where young plants were 
reared. 

Stiva, i^erXr], the plough-tail or handle. The stiva was usually 
morticed into the buris, but it sometimes formed one piece with it. 
It had a cross-piece named manicula, by which the ploughman held 
and directed the plough. Varr. L. L. v. 135 : see Aratrum. The 
plough with the stiva, or single handle, may still be seen in this 
country, namely in Norfolk and Huntingdonshire. 

Stolo, a sucker, or shoot growing up from the roots of a tree. 
The extirpation of the stolones was a point of good husbandry. The 
first of the family of the Stolones, in the Licinian gens, was said to 
have derived his cognomen from his diligence in this respect. Varr. 
i. 2. 

Sulcus, aiikat-, oKkos, a furrow. Qua aratrum vomere lacunam 
striamfacit sulcus vacatur, Varr. i. 29. Virgil and the rural writers 
use sulcus for a trench ; Pliny (xix. 4) also for the alleys in a gar- 
den. Sulcus aquarius, in Columella (ii. 8), is a water-cut. Sulcus 
is also used for aratio. Semina quae quarto sulco seruntur, Colum. 
ii. 13. Spissius solum quinto sulco seri melius est, in Tuscisvero nono r 
Plin. xviii. 20. 

Surculus (dim. of surus), a shoot, a sucker. It was chiefly 
used of the shoots that were taken for grafting. 

Talea, a truncheon, i. e. a branch, of which the two ends were 
cut off and it then was planted out. The olive, myrtle, willow and 
mulberry were thus propagated. Plin. xvii. 17 ; Colum. iv. 31. 

Temo, pv/xos, the pole. The temo was a part of the plough, as 
well as of a cart or carriage. The yoke was fastened to the end of 
it, and by means of it the oxen drew. According to Virgil the temo 
of a plough was to be eight feet long ; and Hesiod C'Epy. 435) says 
it should be of elm or bay. See Aratrum. 

Traha, or Trahea, an implement for threshing out corn. It 
seems to have differed but little from the tribulum. 

Tribulum, to. rpiftoXa, a threshing-sledge. Fit e tabula lapidi- 
bus autferro asperata, quo imposito auriga aut ponder e grandi trahi- 
tur jumentis junctis ut discutiat e spica grana, Varr. i. 52. This 
writer then mentions another kind made ex assibus dentatis cum or- 
biculis, quod vocant plostellum poenicum. One of these was perhaps 
the traha. The tribulum {trebbio, It., trillo, Sp.) is still used in the 
East, in Spain, and in the south of Italy. See Tritura. 

Tritura, dXorjcns (v. tero, aXotaw), threshing. The ancients 
had different methods of threshing their grain. We must previously 
observe that they did not, like us, bring the straw also to the 



368 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

threshing-floor, hut only the ears, or the ears and a small portion 
of the straw : see Messis. One mode was to put their mares or 
oxen in on the area, and driving them round and round over the 
ears of corn that were spread on it, thus by their trampling separate 
the grain from the hull. When they had not a sufficient number of 
cattle for this purpose, they yoked some of those they had to the 
implements named tribula and trahae, and thus threshed the corn 
by driving round and round. In some cases they beat out the corn 
baculis or fustibus (Colum. ii. 21) ; but whether these were the same 
as our flails, or were only sticks, we cannot determine. In the two 
former modes we should suppose that the corn must have been 
greatly bruised ;~for even the iron-shod shoes of our peasantry do 
so to some extent. The threshing was performed in the heat of the 
day ; see on Geor. i. 298. 

Truncus, i. q. Talea : see Colum. De Arb. 17. 

Vanga. This word signifies a spade in the language of modern, 
and therefore probably of ancient, Italy. Palladius alone mentions 
it (i.43). 

Vannus (whence our fan, and perhaps winnow), XiKfios, Xlkvov, an 
implement used in winnowing corn. Servius (Geor. i. 166) calls it 
cribrum areale, and Apuleius says (Met. 11), Vannos onustas aromatis 
et hujusmodi suppliciis certatim congerunt : it therefore was plainly 
some kind of sieve or basket. If there has been no wind for several 
days, says Columella (ii. 21), vannis expurgentur (frumenta) ne post 
nimiam ventorum segnitiem vasta tempestas irritum faciat totius anni 
laborem. This could only have been done when there was no wind, 
by agitating the corn in a sieve or basket, in which the chaff would 
collect on the surface, whence it might be removed by the hand. 
Columella also says (ib.), Ipsae autem spicae melius fustibus tun- 
duntur, vannisque expurgantur, which shows that in ordinary cases it 
was only when there was no straw mixed with the corn that the 
vannus was used. 

Vellera serum, Geor. ii. 121. It is generally believed that by 
this is meant the silk which was brought from the remote East 
to Rome, and which the ancients in their ignorance supposed to be 
a vegetable production, as is very plainly expressed in this verse of 
Virgil. Pliny also says (vi. 17), " Seres lanicio silvarum nobiles, 
perfusam aqua depectentes frondium canitiem ; unde geminus feminis 
nostris labor, redordiendi fila rursumque texendi ; " by which last 
words he is thought to mean, that when the thick silken cloths of 
the East were brought to Europe, the threads which composed them 
were untwisted and the silk woven over again into thinner webs. 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 3bb» 

Solinus, who always follows Pliny, says (ch. 53), " Qui aquarum 
aspergine inundatis frondibus vellera arborum adminiculo depectant 
liquoris, et lanuginis teneram subtilitatem humore domant ad obse- 
quium." Ammianus Marcellinus, speaking of the Seres, says (xxiii. 6), 
" et abunde silvae sublucidae ; a quibus arborum fetus, aquarum 
asperginibus crebris, velut quaedam vellera molientes, ex lanugine et 
liquore mistam subtilitatem tenerrimam pectunt, nentesque subte- 
mina conficiunt Sericum." At the present day some dip the cocoons, 
as they are called, of the silk-worm into warm water, in order to 
wind off the silk with greater ease. The Seres would seem to have 
been the Chinese (at least to have included them), for Mela (i. 2) 
describes their country as lying in the extreme East between Scythia 
and India, consequently on the eastern part of the Ocean, where 
they are also placed by Dionysius. The mildness of manners and 
aversion to strangers, which these writers ascribe to the Seres, also 
accord with the Chinese. From what precedes it might appear that 
the ancients had no idea of the real nature of silk, but such is not 
the case ; for Pausanias (vi. 26) says that the threads (/xt'roi) of 
which the Seres made garments were formed by a little animal 
(£a>v<pwv) which was larger than the largest beetle, but resembled 
the spiders that spin their webs in the trees, and having eight legs 
like them. These, he says, the Seres kept winter and summer in 
boxes, feeding them on a kind of grain which he names eXvpos. 
The thread which these animals span was found about their feet, 
whence it was removed. At the end of four years they put them to 
death. 

The ancients were not totally unacquainted with the silkworm. 
Aristotle, when treating of moths and butterflies (H. A. v. 19), says, 
'Ek 8e twos (TK.cdk.-qK.os peydXov, os e%et oiov Kepara Kal 8ia(fiepei rtou 
aXXcov, ytverai npcoTOV pei> peraftaXovTOs rod aKcoXrjKOs Kaprrrj, eTreira 
jSopftvXios, eK Se tovtov veKvb'aXos' iv e£ 8e /Libert peTafiaXXei ravras 
ras pop<fias Trdo-as. sk Se tovtov tov £coov Kal to. jSopfivKia avakvovtri 
t£zv yvvaiKaw Tives avairqvi^ppevai, KciTretTa v(paivovo~iv" 7rpa>T7] 8e Xe- 
yerai vcprjvai eu Ka Uapcpikr] nXarew dvydrrjp. This account is full 
of difficulty ; for the caterpillar (Kciprrr]) comes from an egg laid by 
a moth ; its first change is into a chrysalis (xpvo-akls, veKvdaXos), 
from which another moth (^X'7) proceeds. Dalechamp therefore 
proposed to make (BopftvXtos and veKvdaXos change places, but that 
is contrary to the MSS. Again, when our author elsewhere uses 
fiopfivKLoi (v. 24), they are a kind of wasp or hornet, while here they 
would seem to be the silkworms' webs. At all events it is plain 
that the women of Cos obtained some kind of silk from insects. 

r5 



370 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

Pliny, when following this place of Aristotle (xi. 22), goes on thus 
after necydulus : " Ex hoc in sex mensibus bombyx. Telas araneonim 
modo texunt ad vestem luxumque feminarum, quae bombycina ap- 
pellatur. Prima eas redordiri rursusque texere invenit Ceo (f. Coo), 
mulier Pamphila Latoi filia;" for the greater part of which he had 
little authority in his original. In his following chapter he proceeds 
thus : " Bombycas et in Co insula nasci tradunt, cupressi, tere- 
binthi, fraxini, quercus florem irabribus decussum terrae halitu ani- 
mante. Fieri autem primo papiliones parvos nudosque, mox frigorum 
impatientia villis inhorrescere et adversum hiemem tunicas sibi in- 
staurare densas, pedum asperitate radentes foliorum lanuginem vel- 
lere. Hanc ab his cogi unguium carminatione, mox trahi inter 
ramos, tenuari ceu pectine. Postea apprehensam corpori involvi 
nido volubili. Turn ab homine tolli fictilibusque vasis tepore et 
furfurum esca nutriri, atque ita subnasci sui generis plumas [i. e. 
alas], quibus vestitos ad alia pensa dimitti. Quae vero coepta sunt 
lanificia humore lentescere, mox in fila tenuari junceo fuso." From 
all that precedes (though the accounts are full of errors) it seems 
plain, as we said above, that the ancients were not ignorant of silk 
being an animal substance. It was probably a better kind of silk- 
worm (the kind now reared), and the knowledge of the mulberry- 
leaves being its proper food, that the monks brought from China in 
the time of Justinian. 

Ventilabrum, tttvov, a winnowing-shovel. Tertullian, as we have 
seen (above p. 363), rendered tttvov by pala; and Columella, when di- 
recting how to winnow a heap of beans, says (ii. x.) paullatirn ex eo 
ventilabris per longius spatium jactetur. The veniilabrum was 
therefore some kind of shovel, and that the tttvov was the same will 
thus appear. Theocritus says (vii. 155) ay em crapa Avdis iyav 
TTa^aLfiL jxiya tttvov, on which the scholiast observes, oTav 8e \iku.wv- 
rai <a\ awpevovo-i tov irvpov, kclto. p-eaov TT-qyvvovai to tttvov, which 
could only be true of a shovel or some such implement. The mode 
of winnowing was by throwing the corn up into the air across the 
wind with the veniilabrum, so that the wind might blow off the chaff. 
Varro, i. 52 ; Schol. II. xiii. 588. Homer has two similes taken from 
the operation of winnowing corn, which show that the mode was the 
same in his days and in those of Varro and Columella : — 

c Qs 8' avep.os a)(yas (popeei Upas Kar akcods, 
dvdpav \u<p.coVTav, ore Te £av8r] Arjpr]Tr]p 
npivei, eTreiyopevoyv avep.av, Kapirov Te nai ci^vas' 
al S' vTToXevKaivovrai d)(ypp.iai. — II. v. 499- 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. b(X 

Qs §' or dno nXareos T7rv6<pLv peydXr/v tear dXarjv 
BpaxTKuxTt. Kva/xoi peXavo^poes rj epefiivdoi, 
ttvoitj virb Xiyvpfj teal XiKprjrrjpos epcofj. — II. xiii. 5S8. 

Vervactum, fallowed land, land that was occasionally allowed 
to rest. Varr. i. 44. Quod vere semel aratum est a temporis argu- 
mento vervactum vocatur, Plin. xviii. 19. 

Villicus, a bailiff or steward. The villicus was usually a slave, 
in whom his master had great confidence, and whom prudent mas- 
ters always took care to have well-instructed in all branches of 
agriculture. He was the locum-tenens and representative of the 
master in the villa, whence his name. The whole management of 
the farm was committed to him, as all the domestic economy was 
to the villica, his contubemalis. See Cato, 5, 142 ; Colum. i. 8 ; 
xi. 1; xii. 1. 

Vindemia, rpvyrjros (v. vindemio, rpvydco), the vintage. The 
ancients had different modes of ascertaining when the grapes were 
fit to gather. They sometimes plucked a single grape out of a 
bunch, and if, after a day or two, its place remained unaltered, it 
was a proof that the grapes had attained their full size and were fit 
to be gathered. Or they squeezed a grape, and if the stones sprang 
out of it clean, without any of the flesh adhering to them, the 
grapes were ripe. But the best mode of judging was by the colour 
of the stones, for if they were black the grapes were fit to gather. 
The vintagers were then set to work, who pulled the grapes and 
carried them in baskets to the wine-press : — 

irapdeviKai 8e kcu rjtdeoi, draXa (ppoveovres, 

7r\eKToZs iv rakapoio-i cpepov peXirjSea Kapnov. — II. xviii. 567". 

At the press the grapes were examined, and all the leaves and the 
withered and the unripe bunches were carefully picked out. They 
were then thrown into the press, into which the treaders went and 
trod them till every grape was broken. The feet and legs of these 
men were bare but clean ; and in addition to their ordinary clothing 
they wore drawers, that their perspiration might not mix with the 
juice of the grapes. This juice (mustum, yXevKos) was then put into 
jars (dolia, 7ridoi) to ferment. These jars were made of potter's clay, 
and they seem to have been of nearly the form of the Spanish grape- 
jars ; they were pitched inside, h e. rubbed with a mixture of pitch, 
wax, vetch- or wheat-meal, thus, and other substances. When 
placed in the wine-cellar, they were sunk to half their height in the 
earth. The skins and stones (vinacea, o-Tep.(pvXd) were put into 



372 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 

jars with water and pressed and squeezed, and the liquor that ran 
from them (lora, 6apva) was given to the slaves in lieu of wine ; 
they were then thrown to the cattle, or put about the roots of the 
vines. 

Vinea, d/nreXuiv, the vineyard. The word is also used of the 
single vine. Vines were planted either in a vinea or an arbustum : 
of the former there were three kinds ; those in which the vines were 
let to run along the ground, the branches when laden with fruit 
being supported by little forked sticks ; those in which the vines 
stood like trees without any support ; and those in which they were 
supported and trained on espaliers. In these the upright pieces 
(pedamenta) were from four to seven feet in height ; they were either 
poles (pali), or clefts (ridicae), these last of oak or juniper; the 
cross-pieces (juya) were either other poles (perticae), or reeds, or 
ropes (restes). The branches and shoots of the vine were fastened 
to these with rushes, broom, willows, etc. 

When a vineyard was to be made, the ground was either all well 
dug (pastinatum), or a deep trench (sulcus) was made in which the 
rows were to be set. The cuttings (malleoli) were reared in a 
nursery (scminarium) , and when they had struck well, i. e. were vi- 
viradices, they were planted out in the vineyard in rows from five to 
seven feet asunder. These rows and intervals were crossed at right- 
angles by alleys, so that the whole vineyard was divided into plots 
(horti, or hortuli, Virgil's antes), of each one hundred vines. The 
ground immediately about the vines was cultivated with the bidens. 
While the plants were young it was dug once a month from March 
till October, care being taken to remove the weeds and grass. After 
it had begun to bear, three diggings were thought sufficient ; one 
before the vines budded, another before they blossomed, and a third 
while the fruit was ripening. The intervals between the rows were 
sometimes tilled with the plough. 

Vomer, or Vomis, vvvls, vvis, the ploughshare. This was made 
of iron, and was fixed on the dentate. Pliny (xviii. 18) describes 
four kinds of shares. The first, he says, was called culter, or knife ; it 
was used in breaking strong land. His words are, " Culter vocatur 
praedensam, prius quam proscindatur, terram secans, futurisque 
sulcis vestigia praescribens incisuris, quas resupinus in arando mor- 
deat vomer." Dickson (i. 385) thinks that this is a coulter similar to 
our own, but Pliny expressly says it is a kind of share ; and as no 
mention whatever of a coulter occurs in the ancient writers, and 
there is none in the plough now in use (see Aratrum), we think that 
the culter was a share with an upright knife rising from its point, 



TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 373 

which cut the sod which then the flat part of the share turned over. 
This kind of share may be seen in some of our draining-ploughs. A 
second kind, he says, was the " vulgare rostrati vectis," — that is, 
was long and beaked, or pointed. The third, used in a light soil, 
he says, did not stretch along the whole of the dentale, but " exigua 
cuspide in rostro," sc. dentalis. He then describes a fourth kind, 
somewhat like the first, lately invented, he says, in Raetia, and to 
which the Gauls added two little wheels. 

Urvum, i. q. Bums. It was so named, says Varro (L. L. v. 135) 
from its curvature, a curvo. 



374 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 



* # * L. Linnams ; N. 0. Natural Order, in the system of Jussieu and 
other botanists ; I. Italian ; F. French ; G. German. 



Abies. (Abies L. ; Coniferae N. O.) 'EXdrt] ; Abete I. ; Sapin F. ; 
Tanne G. Fir. This tree, with its dark-green leaves, like those of 
the yew, though not one of our indigenous trees, is common in our 
plantations. Virgil (Ec. ii. 66) describes it as growing on the 
mountains. 

Acanthus. — I. (1. A. spinosus, 2. A. mollis L. ; Acanthaceae 
N. O.) "AkovBos; Brancorsina I.; Acanthe branc-ursine F. ; Bae- 
renklau G. Brank-ursine or Bear's-foot. — II. (Acacia Nilotica L. ; 
Leguminosae N. O.). Acacia, in all modern languages. 

The first, or brank-ursine, is spoken of by Virgil more than once. 
He calls it mollis, Ec. iii. 45 ; rideits, iv. 20 ; flexus, Geor. iv. 123 ; 
and croceus, Aen. i. 649. The word acanthus signifies thorn-bearing 
or thorny (ajaj, point, and civOos, flower), and hence we find it used 
of plants which otherwise have not the slightest affinity. The 
brank-ursine (so named by the Italians from the resemblance of its 
leaves to a bear's foot) is thus correctly described by Dioscorides : 
" It grows in pleasure-grounds (7rapa§eio-ois) and in stony and 
moist places. Its leaves are much longer and broader than those of 
the lettuce, and cleft like those of the rocket, blackish, smooth, and 
soft. Its stem is two cubits long, smooth, and of the thickness of 
one's finger, surrounded at intervals near the top with small, 
longish, prickly leaves, from which rises the flower, which is white." 
This is generally supposed to be the plant in its wild state (A. spi- 
nosus L.), from which that of the gardens, without prickles (A. mol- 
lis L.), has been derived by cultivation. This last was cultivated 
by the Romans in their pleasure-grounds (Plin. xxii. 22), and Pliny 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 375 

the younger, when speaking of it as it grew in those of his Tuscan 
villa (Ep. v. 6) terms it lubricus et flexuosus, and mollis et pene liqui- 
dus, epithets according with those of Virgil. Flexus and flexnosus, 
we may here observe, are not flexible ; they mean bent, and such is 
the form of the acanthus-leaf, which hangs with a graceful bend. 
In the same manner we are to understand the vimen acanthi of our 
poet, Geor. iv. 123. 

The second acanthus is thus mentioned by Virgil (Geor. ii. 119) 
in conjunction with trees that are all natives of the East : baccas 
semper ^frondentis acanthi. Theophrastus (Hist. PI. iv. 3) thus de- 
scribes this acanthus : " It is so named because the whole tree, with 
the exception of the trunk, is prickly ; for it has thorns on its shoots 
and its leaves. It is of good size, for roofing-timber of twelve cu- 
bits in length is cut out of it. There are two kinds of it, one white 
and another black : the former is weak and liable to rot, the latter 
is stronger and less inclined to decay ; hence they use it in the 
dock-yards for the ships' timbers. The tree does not grow very 
straight : its seeds are in a pod, like pulse, and the natives use 
them for tanning leather, instead of galls : its flower is both beau- 
tiful in appearance, so that they make garlands of it, and medicinal, 
on which account the physicians gather it. The gum also comes 
from this tree, and it flows both when it is wounded and also spon- 
taneously without any cutting." Dioscorides (i. 133) speaks of 
the same tree, but terms it Acacia ('AKa/a'a, from dxi;). He says 
that its flower is white, and its seeds in pods like those of the lupine. 
In this tree then may be recognized at once the Acacia or Mimosa 
Nilotica, the Sunt of the Arabs, the Shittim of the Bible, the tree 
that yields the Gum Arabic. By the baccas we think Virgil must 
have meant the pods, and not the globules of gum ; for we know 
how careless he was in the use of terms, and in all probability he 
had never seen the tree. Mr. Yates, in a valuable essay on the 
subject, in the Philological Museum, No. VII., is of opinion that 
Virgil speaks of a third kind of Acanthus (of the genus Spartimn), 
the da-n-dXados of the Greeks, a kind of prickly broom or furze. He 
thinks that it is only thus that the term vimen is applicable, and in 
Geor. iv. 123, he adopts the reading acanthi instead of hyacinthi, 
and interprets tondebat as clipping or shearing a hedge ; but see the 
note on that place. He also thinks that croceus in Aen. i. 649. 
could not be properly used of the brank-ursine. It is however the 
form only, and that of the leaf, not the flower, that the poet means 
when he uses the term acanthus ; the colouring depended on the 
taste of the embroiderer. 



376 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

Acer. — 1. (A. pseudo-platanus L. ; Acerineae N. O.) ^(pivbajxvos. 
Sieomero I. ; Sycomore, E'rable blanc F. The Sycamore. — 2. (A. 
monspessul anion L. ; Acerineae N. O.) TXIvop. Acero I. ; E'rable 
F. ; AJiorn G. Maple. 

The first of these is the tree which we erroneously call sycamore, 
which, though not indigenous, is common in England. The second 
is the maple, of which Pliny enumerates four or five kinds. He 
notices the beauty of its wavy veins. It was in great estimation for 
making tables; Cf. Hor. S. ii. 8, 10. Virgil names it only in the 
Aeneis, where he mentions it (ii. 1 12) as used in framing the Trojan 
horse and (viii. 178) as forming the throne of Evander. Itis doubt- 
ful of what kind he speaks. 

Aconitum. (A. Napelhis L. ; Ranunculaceae N . O.) 'Akovitov; 
Aconito I. ; Aconit, Napel F. ; Wolfswurz G. Wolfsbane, Monks- 
hood. It is probable, as Fee observes, that under the name of Aco- 
nite the ancients included a variety of deleterious plants. 

Ador. See Far. 

Aesculus, or Esculus. (Quercus Aeseulus L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) 
3>rjy6s. Ischio I. ; CMne esculus F. ; Wintereiche G. A kind of 
Oak. This is the current synonomy of the Aescylus of Pliny ; but 
as this is one of the smallest species of the oak, and as Pliny regards 
it as being rather rare in Italy, while Virgil (Geor. ii. 15) terms it 
maxima, and elsewhere (lb. 291) speaks of it as one of the very 
largest of trees, and Horace (C. i. 22, 14) speaks of woods composed 
of it in Daunia, it becomes a matter of doubt if the Aesculus of the 
poets was not different from that of the naturalist. Tenore expresses 
himself on the subject in the following terms : — " Being for many 
years occupied with the species of Oaks of our Flora, I have had 
occasion to convince myself that in reality the Aesculus of Virgil 
and of Horace does not at all correspond with the Q. Aesculus of 
Linnaeus, and that it is therefore a very different plant from the 
Aesculus of Pliny, to which we refer the Phagus of Theophrastus 
and the other Greek writers. The existence of the true Q. Aesculus 
is still problematic for the Flora of the regions which we inhabit, 
while the Virgilian Aesculus grows most abundantly in our woods 
and is easily distinguished from all the other oaks by its colossal 
bulk and by the character of its very broad leaves, so well expressed 
by the phrase quae maxima frondet. This tree is beyond doubt 
the variety latifolia of the Q. robur of Linnaeus, to which are referred 
the Q. latifolia of Pliny, the Q. platyphyllos Ideorum et Maurorum 
of Theophrastus, and the Q. platyphyllos mas of Dalechamp. The 
acorns of this tree are sweet and good to eat, whence it is that our 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 377 

peasantry eat them roasted like the chestnuts, and on this account 
call the tree that produces them querela castagnara. It appears then 
to me that reducing to certainty what has been hinted doubtingly by 
M. Fe'e, at the same time the double sense of the Aesculus of the 
ancients is recognised and the text of the divine Mantuan illustrated. 
M. Fee notices in the same place with surprise the strange idea of 
those who have deemed that the Aesculus of Virgil might be referred 
to the chestnut ; but if we reflect on the uniformity of the uses made 
of the fruits of these two trees, and even of the vulgar name of the 
former, that notion will perhaps appear less strange." 

Alga. Bpvov dakao-ariov ; Aliga, Alga I.; Algue F. ; Meergras 
G. Seaweed, Seawrack. Under the name of alga the ancients in- 
cluded all the various kinds of marine plants that the sea throws up 
on the shore. It is only of late years that these have been classified 
Allium. (A. sativum L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) SfcogoSoi/; Aglio I. 
Ail F. ; Knoblauch G. Garlic. 

Alnus. (A. glutinosa L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) KkriBprj, fcXrjdpos 
Alno I. ; Aune F. ; Erie G. The Alder. This tree is common 
it grows best in moist situations, as on the banks of streams. 

Amaracus. (Origanum Majoranoid.es L. ; Labiatae N. O.) 'A/^ici 
paKos, ~2aixy\rvxov. This plant, as Fee informs us, does not grow na 
turally in either Italy or Greece. It is supposed, he says, to be < 
native of Barbary. It is akin to the Major ana I. ; Marjolaire F. 
Marjoram of our gardens. 

Amellus. (Aster Amellus h.; CorymbiferaeN.Q.) 'Ao-T^p'ArnKo?, 
Bovj3a>viov. This Aster, which is so accurately described by our poet, 
is found in no part of Italy but the north. It grows also in the 
vicinity of Athens. 

Amomum. All we know of this plant is that it grew in the East, 
and that it yielded a fragrant spice. It occurs also in the com- 
pounds Cinnamomum and Car damomum. Fee thinks it is the Amomum 
racemosum L. of the moderns. 

Anethus. (A. graveolensL. ; OmbelliferaeN. 0.)"Avt]8ov; Aneto 
I. ; Aneth a odeur forte F. Dille G. Dill . This aromatic plant, 
which is akin to the fennel, is cultivated in our gardens : it is not 
indigenous in this country. 

Apium. (A. petroselinumh. ; Ombelliferae N . O .) ~2i\ivov ; Apio 
I. ; Persil F. ; Petersilie G. Parsley. By Virgil this plant is 
termed amarum (Ec. vi. 68) and viride (Geor. iv. 121), and he says 
(ibid) that it grows on the banks of streams. Horace (C. i. 36, 16) 
calls it vivax and udus (C. ii. 7, 23), and speaks of it as forming 
garlands for drinkers with the myrtle and the ivy. These all accord 






378 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

with our cultivated or garden parsley. F£e, in his notes on Pliny, 
inclines to think that this is the opium of these poets : he however 
does not deny that, as Martyn and others hold, it was the 'EXetocre- 
Xivov of Theophrastus, Ache F. ; our Smallage, of which celery is a 
variety. 

Arbutus. {A. unedo L. ; Ericaceae N. O.) Kopapos ; Corbezzolo 
I. ; Arbousier, Fraisier en arbre F. ; Erdbeerbaum G. Arbutus, or 
Strawberry-tree. Virgil terms it viridis (Ec. vii. 46) and horrida 
(Geor. ii. 69) . It is indigenous at the Lakes of Killarney and other 
places in Ireland, and is common in pleasure-grounds. 

Arundo. — 1. (A. phragmites L. ; Gramineae N. O.) KdXapos 
(ppayp'irqs ; Catinal.; Roseau a balais F. ; Rohr, Binse G. Reed, 
Rush. — 2. {A. donax L. ; Gramineae N .0 .) Aovag; Cannal.; Roseau 
a quenouilles; Rohr G. Cane. Virgil names the former tenera 
(Ec. vii. 12 ; Geor. iii. 16) , fluvialis (Geor. ii. 414), and glauca (Aen. 
x. 205). It is apparently of the latter kind that he speaks, Ec. vi. 8. 
This last was used for making pipes and the shafts of arrows. 
Tenore mentions a third kind to be found in Italy, the A. Rhenana ; 
Canna del Reno, so named because it grows on the Reno, which 
flows near Bologna. 

Avena. — 1. {A. sativa L. ; Gramineae N. O.) Bp£>pos ; Avena, 
Vena I. ; Avoine F. ; Haber G. Oat. — 2. {A. fatua L. ; Gramineae 
N.O.) AlyiXayyjf ; Avena, Venal.; Avoine-tres-elcvee, Fromental F. ; 
Wilde Haber, Flughaber G. Wild Oat. The former, our cultivated 
oat, is mentioned Geor. i. 77 ; the other, our wild oat, Ec. v. 37 ; 
Geor. i. 154. In both places it is termed sterilis. 

Baccar. BaKKapis. This plant, which Virgil mentions along 
with the ivy (Ec. iv. 19), and gives, when bound round the head, as 
a protection against the evil tongue (vii. 27), has hitherto perplexed 
naturalists. Dioscorides describes it as fragrant, and used for gar- 
lands, with rough leaves. Its stem, he says, is angular, about a 
cubit long and somewhat rough ; its flowers, purple shaded with 
white, and fragrant ; its roots, like those of the black hellebore, re- 
sembling in smell the cinnamomum. Fee maintains that it is the 
Digitalis purpurea L. (Solaneae N. O.) ; Digitale pourpree F; the 
l Foxglove, one of our indigenous plants. Sprengel held it to be the 
1 Valeriana Celtica L. ; but to this Fee objects that that plant is rare, 
lives only among rocks, and could hardly have attracted the atten- 
tion of the ancients. On the other hand, Tenore objects to Fee that 
the Digitalis is not to be found at all in the south of Italy, and in 
the north only on Monte Baldo at its very extremity. He holds 
the Baccar of the ancients to be the Asarum {A. Europaeum L. ; 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 379 

Aristolochieae N. O.) "Aaapov; Asaro I.; Asaret F. Asarabacca. 
This plant, he says, is common on the shaded sides of the hills in 
Italy ; its leaves are somewhat similar to those of the ivy, and it 
creeps like that plant. Its stem however is short, and hence it 
accords not with the description in Dioscorides. The question 
therefore is still undecided. 

Balsamum. (Amyris apobalsamum L. ; Terebinthaceae N. O.) 
Bako-afiov ; Balsamo I. ; Baurne F. ; Balsam G. Balm of Gilead. 
This gum is produced by two shrubs which grow in Arabia. Ac- 
cording to Bruce these shrubs are so common along the south coast 
of the strait of Babelmandeb, that the inhabitants use no other wood 
for firing. Theophrastus (H. P. ix. 6) asserts that the Balsam grew 
nowhere wild, and was only to be found in two gardens in the Aulon, 
or Vale of Syria, i. e. the Ghor, or valley of the Jordan. Diodorus 
(ii. 48) says the same. Dioscorides (i. 18) says it grew in Judaea 
and in Egypt; Strabo (xvi. 2, 4) in the vale of Jericho and on the 
coast of the Sabaean country. Pliny (xii. 25) confines it to Judaea, 
whither, Josephus says (B. J. viii. 6) it was brought by the queen 
of Sheba. 

Buxcs. (jB. sempervirens L. ; Euplwrbiaccae N. O.) Hvtjos ; 
Bosso I. ; Bids F. ; Buxbaum G. The Box-tree. It is indigenous 
in the south of England, particularly on Box-hill, near Dorking in 
Surrey. 

Caltha. The name of this flower does not occur in Greek, un- 
less it be the x<&£as which Dioscorides (iv. 54) gives as a synonyme 
of xpucra^e/xoi; or (3ovcj)$a\fiov. "Virgil (Ec. ii. 50) terms it luteola ; 
and Columella has (x. 97) flaventia lurnina calthae, and (v. 307) 
he styles xtfiammeola. Pliny (xxi. 6) would seem to place it among 
the violets, and he says it has a strong smell. Ovid (Ex Pont. ii. 
4, 28) mentions among other impossible things Calthaque Paestanas 
vincit odore rosas, whence also it appears that its smell was strong 
and disagreeable. The general opinion is that it is the Fiorrancio I. ; 
Souci F. ; Ringelblume G; Marigold. 

Carduus. Cardo I. ; Chardon F. ; Distel G. Thistle. The car- 
duus of Virgil is supposed by Martyn to be the C. solstitialis or St. 
Barnaby's thistle, which according to Ray grows abundantly in the 
cornfields in Italy. 

Carex. Virgil (Geor. hi. 231) terms the carex acuta, and he 
speaks (Ec. iii. 20) of places overgrown with it. Catullus (xix. 2) 
mentions it as growing near marshes, and used with bulrushes for 
thatching cottages. Palladius (i. 22) speaks of it or broom as a 
thatch. Columella (xi. 2) directs it and the fern to be extirpated in 



380 FLORA VIIiGILIANA. 

the month of August. According to Martyn, Anguillara says that in 
the neighbourhood of Padua and Vicenza a kind of rush is called 
carese. The carex is therefore probably our sedge, or hard rush, 
of which there are about sixty varieties in this country. 

Casia. — 1. (Daphne Gnidium L. ; Thymaleae N. O.) Kveapov, Xa- 
pe\aia,Qvpe\ala; Gar on pohre demontagneF.; Zetland G. Spurge- 
flax or Mountain Widow-wail. — 2. (Laurus- Cassia L. ; Laurineae 
N. O.) Kaaia ; Cassia I. ; Laurier casia lignea F. ; Mutter ziemt G. ; 
Cassia lignea. The first of these is a plant that grows common in 
the south of Europe. It is aromatic, hence its name cneoron (a uvea, 
pungo), and its leaves are shaped like those of the olive ; hence its 
other Greek names. The second (Geor. ii. 466) is our well-known 
Eastern aromatic of the name ; it is the bark of a tree that grows to 
the height of about twenty-five feet. 

Castaxea. (Feigns Castanca L. ; Amcntaceae N. O.) Aibs BaXavos 
Evfio'iKrj ; Castagno I. ; Chdtaignier F. ; Kastanienbaum G. The 
Chestnut. 

Cedrus. (Pinus Cedrus L. ; Coniferae N. O.) KeSpor ; Cedro I. ; 
Ccdre F. ; Ceder G. The Cedar. Beside the cedar of Lebanon, 
with which they were acquainted, the ancients seem to have given 
this name to several of the coniferous plants, especially the junipers. 

Cextaurea. (Centaurea L. ; Cynaracephalae N. O.) Kevravpts, 
KevravpLov; Centauria I.; Centauree F. ; TausendgiddenJcraut G. ; 
The Centaury or Knapweed. A well-known variety of this plant is 
the Bluebottle, that grows so commonly in our fields. Its name is 
derived from the Centaur Chiron, who healed with it the wound he 
had received from the arrow of Hercules. 

Cerasus. (Cerasush.; Rosaceae N. O.) Kepaaos ; Ciliegio I.; 
Cerisier F. ; Kirschbaum G. The Cherry. This tree was first brought 
to Italy from Cerasuntum in Pontus, by Lucullus. Theophrastus 
however knew it by its name Cerasus. 

Cerixthe. This plant is usually supposed to be the C. Major 
L. ; Grand Melinet F. Honeywort. But Tenore asserts that it 
does not grow at least in the south of Italy. He therefore thinks it 
is the C. aspera or C. maculosa, the first of which is common in the 
meadows, the second on the hills of southern Italy. He however 
rather supposes that the Cerinthe of Virgil, who calls it ignobile gra- 
men, is the Satureia Tliymbra or S. capitata, both of which are indi- 
genous in Italy, are aromatic, and like the former have those white 
spots like wax on their leaves which gave origin to the Greek name 
Krjpivdov. 

Colocasia. (Arum Colo casia L. ; Aro'ideaeN. 0.) "Apov Kvpwvai- 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 381 

kov ; Colocasia I. ; Colocase F. ; Aegyptische Bohne G. The Egyp- j 
tian Bean, called by the Arabs Kulkas. This plant is cultivated in 
marshy land in Egypt : it has a long stalk, and bears fruit of the 
form of beans in cells on its summit : it has very large leaves, and 
its roots, which are tuberous, are used for food. It was introduced 
from Egypt into Italy. 

Cornus. (C mash. ; Caprifoliaceae N. O.) Kpaveia; Cornioh I. ; 
Cornouiller F. ; Kornelbaum G. The Cornel or Dog- wood. This 
plant, with its dark-purple fruit shaped like olives, and like them 
with a large stone, may be seen in our hedges and woods. It is said 
to have derived its name (a cornu) from the hardness of its wood. 

Corulus. (C. Avellana L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) Kapva dao-aia rj 
7rovTiKi] ; Nocciuolo I. ; Cuudrier, Noisetier F. ; Hasel G. The Hazel. 

Crocus. (C.sativusL.; IrideaeN.O.)KpoKos; Croco;ZafferanoI.; 
Safran F. ; So/ran G. The Crocus. Several varieties of this plant 
grow wild and in the gardens in England. It is the stigmata of that 
named the Saffron Crocus that are the saffron of the shops. 

Cucumis. (C. sativus L. ; Cucurbitaceae N. O.) 2ikvos rj 2lkvs 
rj/jLepos; Cetriuolo I. ; Concombre F. ; GurJce G. The Cucumber. 
Tenore thinks that it is not this, the common cucumber, that Virgil 
means (Geor. iv. 122) when he describes it as tortus and says that 
crescit in ventrem ; but rather what is now called in Italy Cocomero 
serpentina, which is twice the length of the common cucumber, has a 
crooked neck, a swollen belly, and tastes like the melon. Its original 
country, he says, was Egypt. 

Cupressus. (C. semper-virensh.; ConiferaeN. O.) Kvnapio-o-os ; 
Cipressol.; Cypres F.; CypresseG. The Cypress. This well-known 
tree is not indigenous in Italy : it was brought into that country, 
as Pliny informs us, from Crete, where it grew abundantly on 
Mount Ida. It has been diffused from Italy over the rest of Europe, 
and is now common in our shrubberies. 

Cytisus. By this name botanists are disposed to understand 
two different plants of the natural order Leguminosae : — 1. C. Labur- 
num L. ; Aubours, Faux-ebenier F. The Laburnum. — 2. Medicago 
arborea L. ; Luzerne arborescente F. The reason of this distinc- 
tion is that Theophrastus and Pliny say that the wood of the Cytisus 
is black, while all the ancients say that its leaves and flowers yielded 
a most grateful food to cattle, goats, and bees. Now, though the 
first of these plants grows abundantly in Italy, it is observed that 
the bees do not settle on its flowers, and it is not found at all in 
Greece. The second grows in both Greece and Italy ; the bees are 
very fond of it, and cows and goats eat its leaves with avidity. 



382 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

There can therefore be little doubt that this Arborescent Lucerne is 
the Cytisusjiorens of Virgil. A physician of Candia, named Onorio 
Belli Vicentini, was the first who fixed on this plant for Virgil's 
cytisus, and his opinion has been generally adopted. 

Dictamnum. {Origanum Dictamnus L. ; Labiatae N. O.) AiKrapov 
KprjTiKov. This celebrated labiate plant, akin to our Marjoram, grew 
abundantly in Crete, but was not peculiar to that island. Virgil 
derived his account of the goats using it when wounded probably 
from Theophrastus. 

Euexum. It is probable that by this name (Heb. and probably 
Phcen. Habni, i. e. stone-wood, from its hardness) the ancients un- 
derstood various woods of the genus Diospyros which grow in the 
East, and whose wood is hard and black. 

Ebuluji. (Sambucus Ebidus L. ; Caprifoliaceae N. O.) 'Akttj ; 
Ebulo, Ebbiol.; Hieble, YebleF.; Attich G. The Dwarf-elder, 
Wall-wort, or Dane-wort. This plant, which very much resembles 
the common Elder, grows to the height of about three feet. It bears 
clusters of black juicy berries, and is to be found in woods, hedges, 
and churchyards. Martyn says that it was fabled to have sprung 
from the blood of the Danes when they were massacred by the 
English. 

Elleborus. (E. orientalis L.; Ranunculaceae N. O.) 'EXhefiopos 
fieXas ; Elieboro I. ; Ellebore F. ; Niesewurz G. The Hellebore. 
The ancients had another kind called in Latin Veratrum, but it is of 
the former that Virgil speaks. 

Ervum. (E. Ei-villa L. ; Leyuminosae N. O.) "Opoftos ; Vegyiolo I. ; 
Ers F. ; Erve G. A species, of Tare ; probably the Hairy Tare that 
grows in our fields and hedges. 

Faba. (F. vulgaris Moench. ; Leyuminosae N. O.) ~K.vap.os ; 
Fava I. ; Five de Marais F. ; Bohne G. The Horse-bean. The bean 
is not indigenous in this country. 

Fagus. {Fagus L. ; AmentaceaeN. 0.) ~0£va ; Faggio I. ; Httre F. ; 
Buchbaum G. The Beech. We must be careful not to confound the 
fagus of the Latins with the cpyyos of the Greeks. The latter was 
an oak, while that the former was the beech is clear from the fol- 
lowing words of Pliny : Fagi glans, nucleis similis, triangula cute in- 
cluditur. 

Far. (Triticum dicoccum Schub.; Gramineae'N. O.) Zeia, Zea ; 
Farro I.; E'peautre a deux rangees F. ; Diinlcel G. Spelt. The far, 
also called ador, was the principal food of the Romans in the early 
times of the Republic, and hence it continued to be used in sacrifices, 
etc. They chiefly ate it in porridge, as the modern Italians do the 



FLORA V1RGILIANA. 383 

maize or Indian corn. Far contains less nutritious matter than 1 
wheat, but it will grow on an inferior soil. The glume adheres to 
the seed like that of barley. 

Faselus. (Faseolus vulgaris L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) $>acrrfkos ; 
Fagghiolo I. ; Haricot F. ; Schminl-bohne G. The Kidney-bean. 
Pliny tells us that the Romans ate them just as we do. 

Ferula; (F. communis L. ; Ombelliferae N. O.) ~Napdr]£;; Ferula I. ; 
Ferule F. ; Ferulstaude G. Fennel-giant. This is a large species of 
our common fennel (Finocchio I. ; Fenouil F. ; Fenchel G.). It 
grows to the height of about six feet. It is common in Apulia, 
where the shepherds make walking-staffs of it, which of course are i 
extremely light. The Roman schoolmasters used it for correcting | 
their boys. Juv. i. 15 ; Mart. x. 62, 10 ; xiv. 80. 

Filix. (PolypodiimL.; FilicesN.O.) LTregis; Feleal.; FougereF.; 
FarnJcraut G. Fern. The ancients understood by filix all the dif- 
ferent kinds of fern. 

Fraga. Fragole I. ; Fraises F. ; Erdbeeren G. Strawberries. I 
The singular of this word does not occur, neither does the name of 
the plant. It is the Fragaria L., Rosaceae N. O. This fruit is un- 
mentioned by the Greeks, and we know not how they named it. 
The modern Greeks call it cppayovXi. 

Fraxintjs. {Fraxinus L.^~Jasmineae N. O.) MeXi'a ; Frassino I. ; 
Frdne F. ; Eschenbaum G. The Ash. 

Galbanum. (Bubon Galbanum L. ; Ombelliferae'N.O.) Ta\/3di>r]. 
: It goes by its Latin name in the modern languages. This word has 
been formed from Helbenah, its Hebrew name. This gum (for gal- 
banum is the gum, not the plant) is of a strong, disagreeable odour. 

Genesta. {Genesta juncea L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) "2^aprov ; 
Ginestral. ; Genet d' Espagne F '. ; Genster G. Spanish Broom. This 
plant, with its pretty yellow blossoms, so loved by the Fees", is com- 
mon in this country. In the south of Europe they make cordage I 
and weave baskets of it. 

Glans. BaXavos. By these words the ancients understood not 
merely the acorns of the various species of the oak, but also the j 
beech-mast, etc. 

Hedera velEDERA. (H. Helix L.; CaprifoliaceaeTSi.O.)Kio-<Tos; 
Ellera I. ; Lierre F. ; Epheu G. The Ivy. The hedera alba of Virgil 
(Ec. vii. 38) is, according to Fee, the kind whose leaves are marked 
with white. Tenore is inclined to think that it is an extinct species. 
Hibiscus. (Malva silvestris L. ; Malvaceae N. O.) 'A\6ala 
'Iftio-Kos; Alteal.; GuimauveF.; Eibisch G. The Marsh-mallow. 
The only authorities for the identification of the Hibiscus and the 






3S4< FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

d\6aia, or mallow, are Dioscorides and Palladius, of whom the 
former says, 'AXdaia, evioi 8e 'I/3i'ctkoi> KaKovtri, /xaXa^jj? earlv dyplas 
eibos ; he proceeds to say that its leaves are downy and round like 
those of the cyclamen, its flower like a rose, and the height of its 
stalk three feet. Palladius says, Althaeae, hoc est Ibisci, folia et 
radices. On the other hand Pliny says expressly that the Hibiscus is 
like a parsnip. Virgil says that the goats are driven to it to feed 
on it, or else driven with a rod of it (Ec. ii. 30), and that baskets 
are made of it (x. 71). Now neither the mallow nor the parsnip is 
adapted for this last purpose, and we know not that goats were ever 
put to feed on marsh-mallows, or that a mallow-stalk would answer 
for driving them. We could almost suspect that Virgil's hibiscus 
was some species of willow. At all events we are willing, with Mar- 
1 tyn, to confess our ignorance of it. 

Hokdeum. (II. sativum L.; GramineaeN. O.) Kpidrj ; Orzol.; 
Orge F. ; Gerste G. Barley. 

Hyacinthus. (Lilium Martagon L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) 'Yaxivdos; 
Giacinto ? I. ; Lis Martagon F. ; Turhische Bund G. Martagon, or 
Turk's-cap Lily. This flower, which accords with the description 
of the hyacinthus given by Dioscorides (iv. 63), and which is easily 
known by its petals being turned back, is held by Martyn and Fee 
to be the hyacinthus of the poets. Salmasius and Sprengel main- 
tained that it was the Blue Iris or Corn-flag ; Glaieul F. ; Schwert 
lilie G. (Gladiolus communis L. ; Irideae N. O.). Tenore thinks it 
probable that Virgil applied the term hyacinthus to both ; to the 
latter when he terms it suave rub ens (Ec. iii. 64), to the former when 
(Geor. iv. 183) he styles the hyacinths ferrugineos, or dark-blue ; 
for the Martagon, he says, being always of a brown colour could not 
be termed rubens, while there is a Gladiolus, named by Sibthorp 
G. byzantinus, which grows abundantly in the fields of the Levant 
and Italy, and which both in the colour of the petals and in the 
spots on them, which form the at at of the poets, agrees with their 
description. There is, we know, little stress to be laid on the colours 
named by the ancient poets ; but Ovid, who, as we have often ob- 
served, was a more accurate observer than Virgil, when speaking of 
the transformation of Hyacinthus, says (Met. x. 211), Tyrioque ni- 
tentior ostro Flos oritur formamque capit quam Mia, si non Purpu- 
reus color huic, argenteus esset in illis. Hence we think it may be 
safely inferred that the hyacinthus was shaped like a lily and was of 
a reddish hue, which is true of the Martagon. Virgil probably used 
the term ferrugineus in an improper sense, as perhaps he has done 
also Aen. ix. 582 ; xi. 772. 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 385 

Ilex. (Quercus Ilexh. ; Jmentaceae'N.O.). TLpivos; Elce, Lec- 
tio I. ; Yeuse, Chene vert F. ; Stecheiche, Steineiche G. The Ever- 
green-oak. This tree, which is not a native of this country, is very- 
abundant in the south of Europe : it resembles the oak in nothing 
but in its bearing acorns (to which indeed the Greeks gave a different 
name, cikvXos) ; its dark-green leaves (whence Horace calls it niger) 
are lanceolate. 

Intuba. — 1. {Cichorium Intybus L. ; CompositaeN. O.) Ki^oypiov, 
ILiKpls, Sepis dypla; Cicoreal.; Chicoree F. ; Cichorie, Wegewart G. 
The Succory. — 2. (C. Endivia L.) 2epis K^wevrr] ; Endivia I. ; Chi- 
coree-endive F. ; Endivie G. The Endive. It is of the former, the 
wild plant, that Virgil speaks, Geor. i. 120 ; it grows commonly 
in our fields. He means the second or cultivated kind, Geor. 
iv. 120. 

Juncus. (J. acutus L. ; Junceae N. O.) ^xolvos ; Giunco I. ; 
Jonc F. ; Binse G. Rush. The various kinds oTrushes. 

Juniperus. (J", communis L. ; Coniferae N. O.) "Apjcevdos ; Gi~ 
nepro I. ; Genevrier F. ; Wacholder G. The Juniper. 

Labrusca. (Vitis vinifera L. ; Sarmentaceae N. O.) "ApneXos 
aypia ; Lambrusca, Vite salvatica I. ; Labrusque, Vigne sauvage F. ; 
Klaretterube G. The Wild Vine. The flowers of this plant, named | 
olvdvdrj, were gathered and dried, and used to season honey and oil 
and wine. 

Lana Aethiopum. Geor. ii. 120. (1. Gossypium arboreum, 2. ,, 
G. herbaceum L. ; Malvaceae N. O.) Aevdpov epiotpopov. The Ara- 
bic name is Kotn, whence all the names in modern languages are 
derived. It is also probably the Shesh of the Bible. This plant, 
of which, as we may see, there are two principal kinds, was known 
to the ancients as growing abundantly in Egypt and in India. The 
Greeks named the cotton-wool ftvo-o-os (in Hebrew it is butz), and 
the cloth made from it orivbcov. Theophr. H. P. iv. 9- The wool is 
contained in a capsule of the size of an apple. The cotton-plant is 
now cultivated in Greece, Malta, and Sicily, and to a prodigious ex- 
tent in the southern states of the North American Union, where it 
has been introduced by the European colonists. 

Lappa. {Galium Aparine L. ; Rubiaceae N. O.) "hirapivr) ;\ 
Gratteron, Galier-gratteron F. ; Klebehraut G. Cleavers, Clivers,' 
Goose-grass. In some places (particularly in Ireland) it is called 
Robin-run-the-hedge. 

Laurus. (L. nobilis L. ; Laurineae N. O.) Adcpvrj ; Alloro I. ; 
Laurier F. ; Lorbeer G. The Bay. We must be careful not to con- 
found this plant, whose leaves have such an agreeable odour, with 

s 



386 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

the various laurels of our gardens, which are inodorous, and were 
not brought into Europe till modern times. 

Legumen. "Oa-KpLov ; Legume, Civaja I. ; Legume F. ; Hiilsen- 
frucht G . Pulse. The ancients so named all the plants which bore 
their fruit in pods, as the bean, pea, vetch, lupine, etc. : they even 
included barley. 

Lens. {Ervum Lens L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) <J?aKos, ^uktj ; Lente 
Lenticchia I. ; Lentille F. ; Linse G. The Lentil. This species of 
pulse was cultivated to a great extent in Egypt, whence large quanti- 
ties of it were exported. 

Ligustrum. (L.vulgarcL..; Jasmineae N. O.) Rv7rpos? Ligustro, 
Conosfrella I. ; Tro'vne F. - T Ilartricijrl Raimceide G. The Privet, 
Prim or Print. This is the synonomy usually received, but some 
maintain that the ligustrum of the classics is the Convolvulus (C. sae- 
pium L.) or Bindweed ; Liseron F. ; Winds G., a weed so well-known 
in our gardens and hedges. 

The question is a very difficult one. Virgil mentions the ligustrum 
only once (Ec. ii. IS) and terms it ivhite; Ovid (Met. xiii. 789) 
terms it niveu»; Martial has (i. 116) Toia candidior puella cygno, 
Argento, nive, lilio, Ugnsiro. Hence it would appear that the flower" 
of the ligmtrim was a pure white. On the other hand, Columella 
(x. 300), if the reading be correct, having in view this very eclogue of 
Virgil, has nigra ligustra. The berries of this plant we know are 
black ; but Columella in this place joins it with fragrant plants, and 
neither the leaves nor the berries are such, and the latter are bitter 
and nauseous to the taste. The flower moreover, though very fragrant, 
is a cream colour and not a pure white. The privet is exceedingly 
common in Italy at the present day ; we saw it for example in 
abundance in the neighbourhood of Mantua, and dare ligustra colono 
in Martial (ix. 27) is equivalent to our sending coals to Newcastle. 
Further, that it was a tree or shrub is proved by the following pass- 
ages of Pliny. When speaking of the Cypros of Egypt (xii. 24) he 
says, Quidam Iianc esse dicunt arborem quae in Italia Ligustrum 
vocatur. The Cypros, we may here observe is the Al-henna of the 
Arabs (Laicsonia inermis L.), the Kopher of the Hebrews (Cant. i. 14), 
with a paste made of the leaves of which the women of the East dye 
their nails red. Again Pliny says (xxiv. 10), Ligustrum eadem arbor 
est quae in oriente Cypros. These may answer to the privet, but we 
further meet (xvi. 18), Non nisi in aquosis proveniunt salices, alni, 
populi, siler, ligustra tesseris utilissima ; and here, if the reading 
be correct (of which there is little reason to doubt) and Pliny made 
no mistake, we are completely at fault; for it is in dry, not wet, situa- 



FLOKA VIR-GILIANA. 387 

tions that the privet grows. But neither does the bindweed grow 
in such places, and Pliny could never have called it an arbor. The 
derivation of ligustrum from ligo, would agree well with this last, and 
possibly the same name might in this, as in so many other cases, be 
.given to two different plants, and the poets have spoken of one and 
the naturalist of another. 

Lilitjm. (L. candidum L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) Kpivov, Aeipiov; 
Giglio I. ; Lis blanc F. ; Lilie G. The White Lily. Pliny describes 
it as attaining to the height of four feet and a half. 

Linum. (L. usitatissimumLi.; Lineae N. O.) Alvov; Linol.; Lin 
F. ; Flacks G. Flax. 

Lolium. {L. iemulentum L. ; Gramiueae N . O .) Aipa, Qvapos ; 
Logliol.; IvraieF.; Lolch G. Darnel. This weed used to grow 
commonly with the wheat and barley in ill-tilled lands. Its seed is 
small and has a beard : if it is ground with wheat, the bread made 
of its meal will, it is said, affect the head with giddiness : hence 
Ovid says (Fast. i. 691), Ft careant loliis oculos vitiantibus agri ; hence 
too its French name (from ivre, drunk), from which comes that of 
Jvergrass, by which it is called in the west of England, and Rivery 
its name in Ireland. 

Lotus. Fee in a long disquisition on the subject, first in his Flore 
de Virgile and then in his Commentaire sur Pline, has shown that 
the ancients applied the term lotus to eleven different plants, of which 
five are arboresceot, three aquatic, and two terrestrial and herbaceous. 
The lotus of Virgil in one place (Geor. ii. 84) belongs to the first 
class ; in another (Geor. hi. 394) to the third. The poet does not 
notice, under the name lotus, the second, which contains the various 
Nymphaeae or Water-lilies of the Nile, though he does mention one 
of them under its name Colocasium. The Lotus-tree grows on the 
north coast of Africa : it is described by Theophrastus and Polybius : 
it is a tree of moderate altitude, bearing small fruits, which are sweet, 
resembling the date in flavour. Of the herbaceous lotus the ancients 
mentioned two kinds, the A<dtos rjpepos and the A. liypios or Aifivov. 
The former is the Melilotus officinalis L. ; the latter, the M. caerulea 
L. They are both plants of the papilionaceous or leguminose order : 
the latter is a great favourite with the bees. 

Lupinds. (L. hirsntns and pilosuslu. ; LeguminosaeN.O.) 6epp.os ; 
Lupino I. ; Lupin F. ; Feigbohne G. The Lupine. This plant, which 
we only cultivate for ornament in our gardens, was„ and still is, 
sown in large quantities in Italy for fodder for -cattle, or to be 
ploughed into the land in spring by way of manure. The seeds are 
very bitter j hence Virgil terms it tristis. 

s2 



388 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

Lutum, Luteum, or Lutea. (Reseda lutea L. ; Resedaceae N. 
O.) 'Io-aru; Guadol.; Guide F. ; TVaid G.; Wild Woad, Dyers' 
Weed,Tellow "Weed. This is one of our indigenous plants : it 
grows abundantly in waste places and on ditches and walls ; its stalks 
are from two to three feet in height ; it bears numerous small flowers, 
and yields a beautiful yellow dye. 

Malus. (Pirns Mains L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) MrjXea ; Melo I. ; 
Pomier F. ; Apfelbaum G. The Apple-tree. Fee, from Pliny and 
others, enumerates twenty-four kinds of apples known to the an- 
cients, and he endeavours, with more or less of success, to identify 
them with the modern varieties. The term malus was not how- 
ever restricted by the ancients to the apple ; they had for example 
the jjLrjXea KvScovia, Malus cotonia, and various others. The fruit of 
this tree (Cotogno I. ; Coignier F. ; Quittebaum G. The Quince) 
is generally supposed to be the carta tenera lanugine mala of Virgil 
(Ec. ii. 51), for the quince, as is well known, is downy. Martyn 
however very properly objects that its taste is austere, and that there- 
fore it is ill-suited for a present to a favourite youth. He thinks it 
may have been some kind of peach ; but that must have been rather 
a rare fruit and cultivated only in gardens in Virgil's time, while all 
the other fruits which Corydon mentions grew wild. 

Medica (herba). (Medicago saliva L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) M77- 
diKrj fioTavt] ; Medica erba I. ; Luzerne F. ; Lucerne, Burgundescher 
Klee G. Lucerne. This plant is said to have been brought by the 
Persians into Greece in the time of Darius, whence its name ; but 
this probably indicates no more than that it came from the East. 
Its flower is blue or violet. In this country it is cultivated only in 
Kent and a few other places. Columella praises it greatly, and says 
it lasted ten years in the ground, and might be cut three or four 
times a year. 

Milium. (Panicum Italicum L. ; Gramineae N. O.) Keyxpos ; 
Miglio I. ; Millet F. ; Hirse G. Millet. This pulse is not culti- 
vated at all in this country, and very little we believe on the 
continent. 

Mortjm. By this word the ancients understood, (1) the fruit of 
the mulberry-tree (M. nigra L. ; Urtaceae N. O. ; "2vK.ap.tvos ; Moro 
I. ; Murier F. ; Maulbeerbaum G.), i. e. Mulberries ; (2) the berries 
of the Bramble (see Rubus), i. e. Blackberries. It is of the latter that 
our poet speaks Ec. vi. 22 : see also Ovid, Met. i. 105. 

Muscus. Bpvov; Muscol.- Mousse F. ; Moos G. Moss. This 
cryptogamous plant is too well known to require any description. 

Myrice. (Tamarix Gallica L. ; Temariscineae N. O.) MvpUr} ; 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 389 

Tamarisco I. ; Tamarisc.F. ; Tamarisk G. Tamarisk. The proper 
Latin name of this plant is Tamariscus : it grows naturally on rocks \ 
in the south of England ; has numerous red, shining branches, and \ 
clusters of white or reddish blossoms. In the South it grows also 
on the banks of streams, and is a shrub very agreeable to the eye. 

Myrrha. {Balsamodendron Myrrha Nees v. Esenbeck ; Terebin- 
thaceae N. O.) ILfivpva, Mvppa. The modern names are all derived, 
from the Greek and Latin ones, which themselves come from Mur, 
the Hebrew name of this gum, derived from marar, to flow or to be 
bitter. It is only within the present century that the true Myrrh- 
plant has become known to botanists. 

Myrtus. (M. communis L. ; Myrteae N. O.) Mvpa-ivr], Mvpros; 
Mirto I. ; Myrte F. ; Myrte G. The Myrtle. This beautiful and \ 
fragrant shrub grows abundantly in the warm regions of the South : 
it particularly loves the vicinity of the sea-shore. 

Narcissus. (N. poeticus L. ; Liliaceae N. 0.) NagKiq-o-oj ; Nar- 
ciso I. ; Narcisse F. ; Narcisse G. The Narcissus. This beautiful 
Mower maybe found growing wild in this country, but it is probably 
not indigenous. Its petals are white, and its nectary is edged with 
crimson, whence it is thought that Virgil named it purpureus (Ec. 
v. 3S) ; but this is very uncertain, for, as we have "shown above 
(p. 124), the poets used that term for any bright colour, even for 
white. The Arabs call this flower Nirjis, the Persians Nirkis, and. 
as it is indigenous in the East, it is just as likely that the name 
came thence to Greece as the reverse. . The Greek derivation from 
vapKeco, to make torpid, is not, we think, sufficiently borne out by 
the nature and effects of the plant to induce us to receive it. Virgil 
(Geor. iv. 122) also applies the epithet sera comans, late-flowerings 
to the Narcissus ; and Tenore says that there is a late -flowering kind 
(N. serotinus L.) which grows abundantly in the kingdom of Naples. 

Nux. (Juglans regia L. ; Juglandeae N. O.) Kapva; Noce I.; 
Noyer F. ; JFallnuss G. The Walnut. This word nux is also used 
of the almond, chestnut, filbert, etc., but always, we believe, in such 
cases is accompanied by the adjectives amygdala, castanea, etc. 
When alone, it is the juglans, or walnut. The ^ordjugjans was said\\ 
by the ancients to be formed fcomJoyisj/lans, but it more probably \\ 
was from juga, (i. e.jugata) or j unci a glans, as its shell divides into ' ' 
two equal parts. 

Olea or Oliva. (0. europaea L. ; Jasmineae N. O.) 'EXala ; 
Ulivo I. ; Olivier F. ; Oelbaum G. The Olive. On the culture of 
the olive and the mode of extracting the oil, see Terms of Husbandry, 
v. Oleum. According to Pliny (xv. 4), the fruit of the olive con- 



390 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

■;j sisted of four parts : the stone or kernel (nucleus), the flesh, the oil, 
and the amurca. 

Oleaster. 'AypieXala ; Olivastro, Olivo selvaggio I. ; Olivier sau- 
vage F. The Wild Olive. Tenore says, that the olive grows wild in 
the woods in the kingdom of Naples, and attains the size of a tree. 
This he thinks is the oleaster of the ancients. 

Ornus. It is very uncertain what tree this is : the usual opi- 
nion is that it is the Sorbus aucuparia, our Quicken or Mountain- 
Ash. As this, however, is quite a different tree from the ash, and 
Columella (De Arb. 16) calls the ornus a fraxinus silvestris, distin- 
guished from the other ashes by having broader leaves, botanists are 
now inclined to think it is the Fraxinus rotundifolia of Lamarck, the 
Manna-tree, or tree that yields the manna, of Calabria. 

Paliurus. (Rhamnus Paliurus L. ; Rhamneae N. 0.)Ha\lovpos ; 
Paliure porte-chapeau F. ; Christdorn, Judendorn G. Christ's Thorn. 
This is a prickly shrub common in the south of Italy : Columella 
(xi. 3) recommends it for making quickset hedges, and (vii. 9) he 
classes it with those plants whose fruits and berries were good feed- 
ing for swine. 

Palma. (Phoenix dactylif era L. ; Palmeae N. 0.)<£ou>t£; Palma 
I. ; Palmier- dottier F. ; Palme G. The Palm or Date-tree. This 
tree grows abundantly in the East and on the north coast of Africa, 
and also in Spain and Italy. Its fruit, now well-known in our 
J grocers' shops, was called by the Greeks MktvXos, or finger, from its 
form, whence our word date. 

Papaver. (P. somniferum L. ; Papaveraceae N. O.) Mtjkwv ; 
Papavero I. ; Pavot F. ; Mohn G. The Poppy, both the cultivated 
and the wild. Of the former the ancients had two kinds, named 
from the colour of their seeds, white and black. They used to eat 
/ the seeds roasted, as is done still in some places, for the seeds do 
not partake of the narcotic nature of their capsule. 

Picea. Ultvs} From the description which Pliny gives of this 
tree (xvi. JO), it appears to have been like, if not the same with, the 
fir, which is used so much by us in joiners' work. 

Pinus. (P. Pinea L. ; Coniferi N. O.) Iley/ci] rlpepos; Pino I.; 
Pin pinier F. ; Pinjole G. The Pine. This very handsome tree, 
which the ancients were fond of cultivating in their gardens, grows to 
a great height, and throws out all its branches from the top. The 
kernels of its cones are eaten. 

Pirus. (P.malusL.; RosaceaeN.O.)"A7riov; Perol. ; PoirierF.; 
BirnbaumG. The Pear. Fee enumerates thirty-eight kinds of pears 
mentioned by Columella, Pliny, and others. 



FLORA VIRGILIAKA. 391 

Platanus. (P. orientalis L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) UXdravos ; 
Platano I. ; Platane F. ; Platane G. The Plane-tree. This mag- 
nificent tree is a native of the East, but it grows well in our planta- 
tions. The ancients remarked the resemblance between the form of 
its leaf and that of the Peloponnese, and it is not by any means 
fanciful. 

Pomum Medicum. (Citrus Medica L. ; Aurantiae N. O.) Cedro 
I. ; Citronnier F. ; Zitrone G. The Citron. There can be little I 
doubt that this is the fruit which Virgil calls Pomum Medicum. 

Populus. (P. alba and P. nigra L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) 'Ap- 
peals and A'lyeipos ; Pioppo I.; Peuplier F. ; Pappel G. The Poplar. 
Both the white and black poplar (so named from the colour of their 
bark and leaves) are indigenous in this country. 

Prunus. (P. domestica L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) KoKKvprjXos; Prugno, 
Susino I. ; Prunier F. ; Pflaumenbaum G. The Plum. Pliny reckons 
eleven kinds of plum. One of the best known was the @pafiv\ov, or 
Prunum damascenum, or Damascus plum. 

Quercus. (Quercus L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) Apvs ; Querela I. ; 
Chene F. ; Eiche G. The Oak. The Latin quercus, like the Greek 
Spvs, was a genus including various species, as the aesculus, the 
cerrus, the robur, etc. This last is supposed to be the Q. sessilifiora, 
or Sessile-fruited oak, which is indigenous in this country, and which 
Fee says is called in some parts of France rouvre. We have heard 
the ilex called in Italy quercia, and the common oak rovere. 

Rosa. (Rosa L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) 'P68ov ; Rosa I. ; Rose F. ; 
Rose G. The Rose. The ancients had several kinds of roses, which 
they used for garlands, etc. The R. centifolia was then, as now, 
the most fragrant and most esteemed. On the twice-blowing roses \ 
of Paestum (Geor. iv. 119), which Fee asserts must belong to the \ 
R. Eglanteria, Tenore observes, " In the various rambles which I 
have made in all the country around Paestum, I have never chanced 
to meet with the R. Eglanteria, or any other biferous rose. Instead 
of these I have always got the R. arvensis and the R. saepium, with 
neither of w T hich accords the epithet given by the poet. I therefore 
think that, as Virgil was treating of extensive plantations of roses, 
he on this occasion speaks rather of cultivated roses, among which 
is to be found the species bifera, quite common, at the present day, 
in our gardens." 

Rosmarinus. (R. officinalis L. ; Labiatae N. O.) Aifiavcoris ; 
Rosmarino I. ; Romarin F. ; Rosmarin G. The Rosemary. It was j 
so named from its growing on the sea-shore. 

Rubus. (R. fruticosus L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) Bdros ; Rogo, Rovo 



392 FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

I. ; Ronce F. ; Brnmbeerstrauch G. The Bramble, Briar, or Black- 
berry-bush. Under this term various kinds are included. The fruit 
was called in Latin morion, blackberry. 

Ruscus. (R. aculeatus L. ; Asparageae N. O.) Mvppivr) dypia; 
Brusca, Spruneggio, Pungitopol.; Brusc, Housson,Petit-houx,Houx- 
fragon F. ; Brusch, Mausdorn G. The Butcher's-broom. This plant 
is indigenous in England. 

Saliunca. (J'alcriaua Celtics, L.; Valerianeae N. O.) Napdos 
k€\tlktj. This plant, a species of Valerian, -which our writers call 
French spikenard, is described by Dioscorides and Pliny as growing 
in various parts of the Alps and their vicinity. It is a low plant 
with a fragrant smell, but it is too brittle to allow of its being formed 
into garlands as the ancients did with the rose ; hence Virgil speaks 
of it as inferior to that flower. Dioscorides says that the vdp8os 
ksXtiki), the plant which he describes, was called in the Ligurian 
Alps dXiovyyia, and the people of the Tyrol are said to call it at the 
present clay Seliunk. 

Salix. (Salix L. ; Amentaceae N . O .) 'Irea ; Salcio, Sake I. ; 
Saule F. ; JFcide G. The Willow, or Sallow. The species of this 
plant are very numerous, not less than sixty-four being indigenous 
in this country. 

Sardoa herba. (Ranunculus Sardous Crantz; Ranunculaceae 
N. O.) Barpdxiov ^i/coofieo-repoi/. This plant, celebrated for its bitter- 
ness and its contractile force on the visages of those that chew 
it, is found not only in Sardinia (whence it is named), but in Italy 
and France, where, according to Fe'e, it grows in the fields or by the 
roadsides, and especially near marshes. As Dioscorides compares 
its leaves to those of the celery, it is probably the Celery-leaved 
Crowfoot, one of our indigenous plants, and which is of so acrid a 
nature that the beggars use it to produce artificial sores. 

Scilla. (S. maritima L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) SkiaAo, • S^ivos ; 
Squilla I. ; Settle maritime F. ; Meerziviebel G. The Squill, or Sea- 
leek. This bulbous plant, which grows in sandy tracts by the sea- 
shore, is indigenous in these countries. It is very abundant on both 
sides of the bay of Dublin, and on the coast of Wales. A syrup is 
made from it well-known in medicine. 

Serpyllum. (Thymus Serpyllum'L. ; Labiatae N. O.) "'EjmykXos ; 
Sermollino, Serpollo I. ; Serpolet F. ; Quendel G. Wild Thyme. This 
fragrant plant grows common in this country. Bees are fond of it, 
and when sheep feed on it it is said to give a fine flavour to the 
mutton. 

Siler. Botanists and commentators are quite at variance with 



FLORA V1RGILIANA. 393 

each other about this plant. All that we know of it is that it grew 
in moist places, that its seeds were used in medicine, and that the 
rustics bore staves made of it as a protection against serpents, which 
fled from it. Plin. xvi. 18 ; xxiv. 10. Virgil (Geor. ii. 12) gives it 
the epithet mollis. Martyn and Fee think it likely that it is the 
osier. 

Sorbus. (S. domestica L. ; Rosaceae N. 0.)*Oa, ova; Sorbo I. ; 
So7-Mer F. ; Sperberbaum G. Service-tree. The fruit of this tree 
resembles a brown-red pear, and it tastes like a medlar. 

Taeda. Pliny enumerates the taeda among the pines; but as 
Fee observes, it is probably an error, the proper sense of the word 
being torch, for the making of which the pine wood was em- 
ployed. 

Taxus. (T. baccata L. ; Coniferae N. O.) 2/uXos; Tasso I. ; 
Jf F. ; Eibenbaum G. The Yew. 

Terebinthus. (Pistacia Terebinthus L. ; Terebinthaceae N. O.) 
Tepfjiivdos ; Terebinto I . ; Terebinthe F. ; Terpentinbaum G. Tere- 
binth, or Turpentine-tree. This tree, whose wood is of a darkl 
colour (Aen. x. 136), grew in Epirus and Macedonia, but did not i 
there attain to the size it did in Syria. Plin. xiii. 6. It is the 
Hebrew Elah, usually rendered oak, as Gen. xxxv. 4 ; Judges vi. 11. 

Thus. Ai(3avos. It is not known exactly what tree produced this, 
gum, but it appears that it was of the terebinthine, and not of the '•■ 
coniferous family. The best thus comes from India, and its name 
is said to be turuzca in Sanscrit. 

Thymbra. (Satureia thymbra L. ; Labiatae N. O.) Qvufipa ; 
Sarriette Fr. ; Saturei G. Savory. The thymbra, though a kind of 
Satureia, was different from it, for Columella has (x. 233) Et sa- 
tureia thymi referens thymbraeque saporem. It may be that the 
thymbra is the wild, the Satureia the cultivated plant. The savory, 
though cultivated in our gardens, is not one of our indigenous 
plants. 

Thymus. (Thymus vulgaris L. ; Labiatae N. O.) Qvfios ; Timo I.; 
TJiym F. ; Thymian G. Thyme. Fee thinks that under the term 
thymus the ancients included several of the labiate plants, among 
others the common thyme. Bauhin, who is followed by Martyn 
and Sprengel, maintained that the thymus as described by Diosco- 
rides was not our common thyme, but a labiate which he names 
T. capitatus, on account of its flowers growing in a head or tuft, 
and which is common in the south of Europe, especially in Attica. 
Martyn adds that it is known among us by the name of the tree 
Tliyme of the ancients. 



394- FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

Triticum. (T. Jiibernnm, L. Gramineae N. O.) Ilvgos ; Grawo I. ; 
Froment F. ; PFiaze G. Wheat. To judge by medals, etc., as 
Martyn observes, the ancients knew only the bearded varieties of 
wheat. 

Vaccinium. There are two opinions respecting this plant, some 
regarding it as a shrub, others as a flower. The former, among 
whom is Fee, say it is the V. Myrtillus L. ; Faciei Fr. ; the WJior- 
i rjeberry. Their chief argument seems to be the resemblance be- 
tween vaccinium and vaciet, and the supposition that, ligustrura 
being the privet, Virgil must naturally (Ec. i. 30) have opposed one 
shrub to another. But as it appears to be the berries of the one 
and the flower of the other that they regard as opposed, there thence 
arises as great a difficulty on their side ; besides, in Ec. x. 39, the 
vaccinium is mentioned with the viola as being similar in colour. 
The verse just referred to is in effect the translation of a verse of 
Theocritus, in which the vclkiv&os is joined with the IV, and vacci- 
viiini may, without any violation of the rules of etymology, be de- 
rived from vdiavdos. Moreover, Dioscorides describes the vaccinium 
as having a bulbous root, and being full of purple flowers. We 
therefore incline to those who hold the last opinion. We must 
at the same time observe, that according to Pliny the vaccinium was 
| used in dying, and that, as Fee tells us, the whortleberries are still 
■ used for that purpose in Sweden. 

Vellera Serum. See page 368. 

Verbena. By this word the ancients understood in general any 
I herbs or plants that were used for sacred purposes. It was used 
therefore of the olive, the bay, the myrtle, etc. Pliny (xxv. 9) men- 
tions a particular plant named Verbenaca (Verbena officinalis L. ; 
Pyrenactae~S. O.) 'lepa fioravr], HepuTTepeeov ; Verbena I.; Verveine 
F. Vervain. It grew, he says, in moist places, and its leaves were 
shaped" like those of the oak. 

Viburnum. (V. Lantana L. ; Cajmfoliaceae N. O.) Greek name 
unknown ; Viburno I. ; Viorne F. ; Schlingbaum, JVegeschlinge, 
Mehlbaum G. Wayfaring-tree, Mealy Guelder-rose. This shrub, 
with mealy branches and numerous white flowers, is found occa- 
sionally hi our woods and hedges. Tenore says that the Viburnum 
of Virgil is not the V. Lantana, but the V. Tinus, which is called by 
the Italians at the present day Lentaggine, as the Viburnum was 
named by the ancients Lent ago. 

Vicia. (V. sativa L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) 'AxfeaKrj; Veccial.; 
Vesce F. ; Wicke G. The Vetch. There are two kinds of it indi- 
genous in this country. 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 395 

Viola. (V.odorataL.; Tiolareae N. O.) "lov ; Viola, Violetta,!.- 
Violeite F. ; Veilchen G. The Violet, including the various kinds 
of pansy. This also is one of our indigenous flowers : it grows 
wild in the woods and fields in most countries ; it abounds in the 
neighbourhood of Rome. Virgil mentions (Ec. ii. 38) a flower 
which he calls viola pattens, and Pliny a viola alba. They are pro- ' 
bably the same. Some make it the Snowflake (Leucoiiim vernum), 
others the Wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri), others the Primrose 
{Primula), others the Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), but none ac- 
cords with Pliny's description. Matthioli says there is a white 
species of violet which grows abundantly in Italy in low moist 
situations, and this may be Virgil's flower. Tenore informs us that 
on the hills and the coast of Sicily grows the Leucoium autumnale, 
which flowers in the end of the summer, and whose white blossoms 
greatly resemble the Buca-neve or Snowdrop. 

Viscum. {V. album L. ; LorantheaelS.Q.) 'l^ia , tf 6s- ; Vischio, 
Viscol.; GuiF.; Vogelleim G. Birdlime. This parasitic plant •j 
grows on a great variety of trees, such as limes, elms, ashes, hazels, 
quinces, apples, pears, plums, etc. : it grows also on the oak, but 
very rarely, and it is said that this is the reason why this kind was 
so much prized by the Druids. From its berries, which are of a 
yellow or golden colour, the birdlime is made. 

Vitis. {V. vinifera L. ; Sarmentaceae N. O.) "AprreXos ; Vite I. ; 
Vigne F. ; Weinrebe G. The Vine. This plant and its delicious 
fruit are too well known to require any description : it is indige- 
nous in Europe, but only to the south of the great chain of moun- 
tains which divides it from west to east. It may be of use here to 
notice the ancient names of the different parts of the vine and its 
fruit. From the root rose the stock, truncus, o-reXexos ; from the 
stock the branches or arms, brachia ; on which came the buds, 
gemmae or oculi, ocp&aXpoi ; from these grew the shoots, which 
while young and tender were called pampini, /SAao-rai ; when they 
began to bear they were named palmites and palmae, and when they 
were getting dry and hard sarmenta. The Greeks had but the one 
name Kk.rjp.aTa for the palm'iles~aiid the sarmenta, and the Latins 
(even the rustic writers) use them and pampinus without much dis- 
crimination. The vine had also tendrils, capreoli, eXiK.es, by which 
it clung to its supports. The bunch of grapes, uva, o-ra(pv\rj, (36- 
rpvs, hung by its stalk, pediculus, from the palmes ; the minor 
bunches of which it consisted were named racemi {fiorpves ? the j 
Greeks seem to make no difference between fiorpvs and o-Ta(pvXrj), 



FLORA VIRGILIANA. 

and their stalks scopi, scopiones. On the scopus grew the single 
grapes, acini -a, gratia, payts, kokkoi : — 

"Tempus ut extentis tumeatfacit uva racemis 

Vixque mernm capiant gratia quod intus habent." 

Ovid. Tr. iv. 6, 9. 
The acinus held in its skin, folliculus, the juice and the stones 
J vinacef-ae and -a, yiyapra. The stalks, skins and stones, after 
being trodden and pressed, were also named vinacei -ae -a, yiyapra, 
and also crrepcpvXa by the Greeks. 

Ulmus. (U. campestrix L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) ILrekea; Olm,o I.; 
Orme, Ormeau F. ; Ulmbqum G. The Elm. This tree is indigenous 
in all parts of Europe, 

Ulva. (Festuca flaitans L. ; Graminaceae N. O.) Ti^^. Fee 
thinks that this plant, which he says is called L'Herbe a la Manne, 
which grows in marshes, and whose heads when boiled in milk re- 
semble sago and are a good aliment, is the ulva paluslris of Virgil, 
Geor. iii. 175. Tenore says it abounds in the kingdom of Naples. 
Fee further thinks that the ordinary ulva of Ovid and the other poets 
is some kind of scirpus, probably the S. lacustris L. 



PRIOTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, 
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 




Nbss 



